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Ramses II.

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By G. MASPERO, Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws,
and Fellow of Queen s College, Oxford ; Member of
the Institute and Professor at the College of France

Edited by A. H. SAYCE, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford

Translated by M. L. McCLURE, Member of
the Committee of the Egypt Exploration Fund

VOL. I

Containing over Twelve Hundred
Colored Plates and Illustration!

THE G R O L I E R SOCIETY

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EDITOR S PREFACE

PKOFESSOR MASPERO does not need to be introduced to
us. His name is well known in England and America
as that of one of the chief masters of Egyptian science as
well as of ancient Oriental history and archeology. Alike
as a philologist, a historian, and an archaeologist, he
occupies a foremost place in the annals of modern know
ledge and research. He possesses that quick apprehension
and fertility of resource without which the decipherment of
ancient texts is impossible, and he also possesses a sym
pathy with the past and a power of realizing it which are
indispensable if we would picture it aright. His intimate
acquaintance with Egypt and its literature, and the oppor
tunities of discovery afforded him by his position for several
years as director of the Bulaq Museum, give him an unique
claim to speak with authority on the history of the valley
of the Nile. In the present work he has been prodigal of
his abundant stores of learning and knowledge, and it may
therefore be regarded as the most complete account of
ancient Egypt that has ever yet been published.

In the case of Babylonia and Assyria he no longer, it is
true, speaks at first hand. But he has thoroughly studied

a 2

vi EDITOR S PREFACE

the latest and best authorities on the subject, and has
weighed their statements with the judgment which comes
from an exhaustive acquaintance with a similar department
of knowledge.

Naturally, in progressive studies like those of Egyptology
and Assyriology, a good many theories and conclusions
must be tentative and provisional only. Discovery crowds
so quickly on discovery, that the truth of to-day is often
apt to be modified or amplified by the truth of to-morrow.
A single fresh fact may throw a wholly new and unexpected
light upon the results we have already gained, and cause
them to assume a somewhat changed aspect. Bat this is
what must happen in all sciences in which there is a
healthy growth, and archa3ological science is no exception
to the rule.

The spelling of ancient Egyptian proper names adopted
by Professor Maspero will perhaps seem strange to many.
But it must be remembered that all our attempts to
represent the pronunciation of ancient Egyptian words
can be approximate only ; we can never ascertain with
certainty how they were actually sounded. All that
can be done is to determine what pronunciation was
assigned to them in the Greek period, and to work back
wards from this, so far as it is possible, to more remote
ages. This is what Professor Maspero has done, and it
must be no slight satisfaction to him to find that on the
whole his system of transliteration is confirmed by the
cuneiform tablets of Tel el-Amarna.

The difficulties attaching to the spelling of Assyrian
names are different from those which beset our attempts

EDITOR S PREFACE vii

to reproduce, even approximately, the names of ancient
Egypt. The cuneiform system of writing was syllabic,
each character denoting a syllable, so that we know what
were the vowels in a proper name as well as the consonants.
Moreover, the pronunciation of the consonants resembled
that of the Hebrew consonants, the transliteration of which
has long since become conventional. When, therefore, an
Assyrian or Babylonian name is written phonetically, its
correct transliteration is not often a matter of question.
But, unfortunately, the names are not always written
phonetically. The cuneiform script was an inheritance
from the non-Semitic predecessors of the Semites in Baby
lonia, and in this script the characters represented words
as well as sounds. Not unfrequently the Semitic Assyrians
continued to write a name in the old Sumerian way instead
of spelling it phonetically, the result being that we do not
know how it was pronounced in their own language. The
name of the Chaldaean Noah, for instance, is written with
two characters which ideographically signify "the sun" or
" day of life," and of the first of which the Sumerian values
were ut, babar, khis, tain, and par, while the second had the
value of zi. Were it not that the Chaldaean historian
Bgrossos writes the name Xisuthros, we should have no
clue to its Semitic pronunciation.

Professor Maspero s learning and indefatigable industry
are well known to me, but I confess I was not prepared for
the exhaustive acquaintance he shows with Assyriological
literature. Nothing seems to have escaped his notice.
Papers and books just published, and half- forgotten
articles in obscure periodicals which appeared years ago,

viii EDITOR S PREFACE

have all alike been used and quoted by him. Naturally,
however, there are some points on which I should be
inclined to differ from the conclusions he draws, or to
which he has been led by other Assyriologists. With
out being an Assyriologist himself, it was impossible for
him to be acquainted with that portion of the evidence
on certain disputed questions which is only to be found in
still unpublished or untranslated inscriptions.

There are two points which seem to me of sufficient
importance to justify my expression of dissent from his
views. These are the geographical situation of the land of
Magan, and the historical character of the annals of Sargon
of Accad. The evidence about Magan is very clear.
Magan is usually associated with the country of Melu-
khkha, "the salt desert, and in every text in which its
geographical position is indicated it is placed in the im
mediate vicinity of Egypt. Thus Assur-bani-pal, after
stating that he had " gone to the lands of Magan and
Melukhkha," goes on to say that he "directed his road
to Egypt and Kush," and then describes the first of his
Egyptian campaigns. Similar testimony is borne by Esar-
haddon. The latter king tells us that after quitting Egypt
he directed his road to the land of Melukhkha, a desert
region in which there were no rivers, and which extended
"to the city of Bapikh (the modern Eaphia) "at the
edge of the wadi of Egypt " (the present Wadi El-Arish).
After this he received camels from the king of the Arabs,
and made his way to the land and city of Magan. The
Tel el-Arnarna tablets enable us to carry the record back
to the fifteenth century B.C. In certain of the tablets now

EDITOR S PREFACE

au Berlin (Winckler and Abel, 42 and 45) the Phoenician
governor of the Pharaoh asks that help should he sent him
from Melukhkha and Egypt : " The king should hear the
words of his servant, and send ten men of the country of
Melukhkha and twenty men of the country of Egypt to
defend the city [of Gebal] for the king." And again, "I
have sent [to] Pharaoh" (literally, " the great house")
"for a garrison of men from the country of Melukhkha,
and . . . the king has just despatched a garrison [from]
the country of Melukhkha." At a still earlier date we
have indications that Melukhkha and Magan denoted the
same region of the world. In an old Babylonian geo
graphical list which belongs to the early days of Chaldaean
history, Magan is described as "the country of bronze,"
and Melukhkha as "the country of the samdu," or "mala
chite." It was this list which originally led Oppert,
Lenormant, and myself independently to the conviction
that Magan was to be looked for in the Sinaitic Peninsula,
Magan included, however, the Midian of Scripture, and
the city of Magan, called Makkan in Semitic Assyrian, is
probably the Makna of classical geography, now repre
sented by the ruins of Mukna.

As I have always maintained the historial character of
the annals of Sargon of Accad, long before recent dis
coveries led Professor Hilprecht and others to adopt the
same view, it is as well to state why I consider them worthy
of credit. In themselves the annals contain nothing
improbable; indeed, what might seem the most unlikely
portion of them that which describes the extension
of Sargon s empire to the shores of the Mediterranean

x EDITOR S PREFACE

has been confirmed by the progress of research. Ammi-
satana, a king of the first dynasty of Babylon (about
2200 B.C.), calls himself "king of the country of the
Amorites," and the Tel el-Amarna tablets have revealed
to us how deep and long-lasting Babylonian influence
must have been throughout Western Asia. Moreover,
the vase described by Professor Maspero in the present
work proves that the expedition of Naram-Sin against
Magan was an historical reality, and such an expedition
was only possible if "the land of the Amorites," the
Syria and Palestine of later days, had been secured in the
rear. But what chiefly led me to the belief that the annals
are a document contemporaneous with the events narrated
in them, are two facts which do not seem to have been
sufficiently considered. On the one side, while the annals
of Sargon are given in full, those of his son Naram-Sin
break off abruptly in the early part of his reign. I see no
explanation of this, except that they were composed while
Naram-Sin was still on the throne. On the other side, the
campaigns of the two monarchs are coupled with the astro
logical phenomena on which the success of the campaigns
was supposed to depend. We know that the Babylonians
were given to the practice and study of astrology from the
earliest days of their history ; we know also that even in
the time of the later Assyrian monarchy it was still
customary for the general in the field to be accompanied
by the asipu, or "prophet," the aslishdph of Dan. ii. 10, on
whose interpretation of the signs of heaven the movements
of the army depended ; and in the infancy of Chaldsean
history we should accordingly expect to find the astrological

EDITOR S PREFACE xi

sign recorded along with the event with which it was
bound up. At a subsequent period the sign and the event
were separated from one another in literature, and had the
annals of Sargon been a later compilation, in their case
also the separation would assuredly have been made.
That, on the contrary, the annals have the form which
they could have assumed and ought to have assumed only
at the beginning of contemporaneous Babylonian history,
is to me a strong testimony in favour of their genuineness.

It may be added that Babylonian seal-cylinders have
been found in Cyprus, one of which is of the age of Sargon
of Accad, its style and workmanship being the same as
that of the cylinder figured in vol. iii. p. 96, while the
other, though of later date, belonged to a person who
describes himself as " the servant of the deified Naram-
Sin." Such cylinders may, of course, have been brought
to the island in later times ; but when we remember that
a characteristic object of prehistoric Cypriote art is an
imitation of the seal-cylinder of Chalda3a, their discovery
cannot be wholly an accident.

Professor Maspero has brought his facts up to so recent
a date that there is very little to add to what he has
written. Since his manuscript was in type, however, a
few additions have been made to our Assyriological know
ledge. A fresh examination of the Babylonian dynastic
tablet has led Professor Delitzsch to make some alterations
in the published account of what Professor Maspero calls
the ninth dynasty. According to Professor Delitzsch, the
number of kings composing the dynasty is stated on the
tablet to be twenty-one, and not thirty-one as was formerly

sii EDITOR S PREFACE

read, and the number of lost lines exactly corresponds with
this figure. The first of the kings reigned thirty-six years,
and he had a predecessor belonging to the previous dynasty
whose name has been lost. There would consequently
have been two Elamite usurpers instead of one.

I would further draw attention to an interesting text,
published by Mr. Strong in the Babylonian and Oriental
Record, which I believe to contain the name of a king
who belonged to the legendary dynasties of Chaldaea.
This is Samas-natsir, who is coupled with Sargon of
Acoad and other early monarchs in one of the lists. The
legend, if I interpret it rightly, states that " Elam shall
be altogether given to Samas-natsir ; " and the same prince
is further described as building Nippur and Dur-ilu, as
King of Babylon and as conqueror both of a certain
Baldakha and of Khumba-sitir, " the king of the cedar-
forest." It will be remembered that in the Epic of Gil-
games, Khumbaba also is stated to have been the lord of
the " cedar- forest."

But of new discoveries and facts there is a constant
supply, and it is impossible for the historian to keep pace
with them. Even while the sheets of his work are passing
through the press, the excavator, the explorer, and the
decipherer are adding to our previous stores of knowledge.
In Egypt, Mr. de Morgan s unwearied energy has raised
as it were out of the ground, at Kom Ombo, a vast and
splendidly preserved temple, of whose existence we had
hardly dreamed; has discovered twelfth- dynasty jewellery
at Dahshur of the most exquisite workmanship, and at
Meir and Assiut has found in tombs of the sixth dynasty

EDITOR S PREFACE xiii

painted models of the trades and professions of the day,
as well as fighting battalions of soldiers, which, for fresh
ness and lifelike reality, contrast favourably with the
models which come from India to-day. In Babylonia, the
American Expedition, under Mr. Haines, has at Niffer
unearthed monuments of older date than those of Sargon
of Accad. Nor must I forget to mention the lotiform
column found by Mr. de Morgan in a tomb of the Old
Empire at Abusir, or the interesting discovery made by
Mr. Arthur Evans of seals and other objects from the
prehistoric sites of Krete and other parts of the ^Egean,
inscribed with hieroglyphic characters which reveal a new
system of writing that must at one time have existed by
the side of the Hittite hieroglyphs, and may have had its
origin in the influence exercised by Egypt on the peoples
of the Mediterranean in the age of the twelfth dynasty.

In volumes IV., V., and VI. we find ourselves in the
full light of an advanced culture. The nations of the
ancient East are no longer each pursuing an isolated
existence, and separately developing the seeds of civiliza
tion and culture on the banks of the Euphrates and the
Nile. Asia and Africa have met in mortal combat. Baby
lonia has carried its empire to the frontiers of Egypt, and
Egypt itself has been held in bondage by the Hyksos
strangers from Asia. In return, Egypt has driven back
the wave of invasion to the borders of Mesopotamia, has
substituted an empire of its own in Syria for that of the
Babylonians, and has forced the Babylonian king to treat
with its Pharaoh on equal terms. In the track of war and
diplomacy have come trade and commerce ; Western Asia

xiv EDITOR S PREFACE

is covered with roads, along which the merchant and the
courier travel incessantly, and the whole civilised world
of the Orient is knit together in a common literary culture
and common commercial interests.

The age of isolation has thus been succeeded by an age
of intercourse, partly military and antagonistic, partly
literary and peaceful. Professor Maspero paints for us
this age of intercourse, describes its rise and character,
its decline and fall. For the unity of Eastern civilization
was again shattered. The Hittites descended from the
ranges of the Taurus upon the Egyptian province of
Northern Syria, and cut off the Semites of the west from
those of the east. The Israelites poured over the Jordan
out of Edom and Moab, and took possession of Canaan,
while Babylonia itself, for so many centuries the ruling
power of the Oriental world, had to make way for its
upstart rival Assyria. The old imperial powers were
exhausted and played out, and it needed time before the
new forces which were to take their place could acquire
sufficient strength for their work.

As usual, Professor Maspero has been careful to embody
in his history the very latest discoveries and information.
Notice, it will be found, has been taken even of the stela
of Meneptah, recently disinterred by Professor Petrie, on
which the name of the Israelites is engraved. At Elephan
tine, I found, a short time since, on a granite boulder, an
inscription of Khufuankh whose sarcophagus of red
granite is one of the most beautiful objects in the Gizeh
Museum which carries back the history of the island to
the age of the pyramid-builders of the fourth dynasty. The

EDITOR S PREFACE xv

boulder was subsequently concealed under the southern
side of the city-wall, and as fragments of inscribed papyrus
coeval with the sixth dynasty have been discovered in
the immediate neighbourhood, on one of which mention
is made of " this domain of Pepi II., it would seem that
the town of Elephantine must have been founded between
the period of the fourth dynasty and that of the sixth.
Manetho is therefore justified in making the fifth and sixth
dynasties of Elephantine origin.

It is in Babylonia, however, that the most startling
discoveries have been made. At Tello, M. de Sarzeo has
found a library of more than thirty thousand tablets, all
neatly arranged, piled in order one on the other, and
belonging to the age of Gudea (B.C. 2700). Many more
tablets of an early date have been unearthed at Abu-Habba
(Sippara) and Jokha (Isin) by Dr. Scheil, working for the
Turkish government. But the most important finds have
been at Niffer, the ancient Nippur, in Northern Babylonia,
where the American expedition has brought to a close its
long work of systematic excavation. Here Mr. Haynes
has dug down to the very foundations of the great temple
of El-lil, and the chief historical results of his labours have
been published by Professor Hilprecht (in The Babylonian
Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, vol. i. pt. 2,
1896).

About midway between the summit and the bottom of
the mound, Mr. Haynes laid bare a pavement constructed
of huge bricks stamped with the names of Sargon of Akkad
and his son Naram-Sin. He found also the ancient wall

of the city, which had been built by Naram-Sin, 13 75
VOL. i.

XVI

EDITOR S PREFACE

metres wide. The debris of ruined buildings which lies
below the pavement of Sargon is as much as 9 25 metres
in depth, while that above it, the topmost stratum of which
brings us down to the Christian era, is only 11 metres in
height. We may form some idea from this of the
enormous age to which the history of Babylonian culture
and writing reaches back. In fact, Professor Hilprecht
quotes with approval Mr. Haynes s words: "We must
cease to apply the adjective earliest to the time of
Sargon, or to any age or epoch within a thousand years
of his advanced civilization." " The golden age of Baby
lonian history seems to include the reign of Sargon and

ofUr-Gur."

Many of the inscriptions which belong to this remote
age of human culture have been published by Professor
Hilprecht. Among them is a long inscription, in 132 lines,
engraved on multitudes of large stone vases presented to
the temple of El-lil by a certain Lugal-zaggisi. Lugal-
zaggisi was the son of Ukus, the patesi or high priest
of the "Land of the Bow," as Mesopotamia, with its
Bedawin inhabitants, was called. He not only conquered
Babylonia, then known as Kengi, "the land of canals and
reeds," but founded an empire which extended from the
Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. This was centuries
before Sargon of Akkad followed in his footsteps. Erech
became the capital of Lugal-zaggisi s empire, and doubt
less received at this time its Sumerian title of " the city"

par excellence.

For a long while previously there had been war between
Babylonia and the "Land of the Bow," whose rulers seem

EDITOR S PREFACE xvii

to have established themselves in the city of Kis. At one
time we find the Babylonian prince En-sag(sag)-ana
capturing Kis and its king ; at another time it is a king
of Kis who makes offerings to the god of Nippur, in
gratitude for his victories. To this period belongs the
famous " Stela of the Vultures " found at Tello, on which
is depicted the victory of E-dingir- ana-gin, the King of
Lagas (Tello), over the Semitic hordes of the Land of
the Bow. It may be noted that the recent discoveries
have shown how correct Professor Maspero has been in
assigning the kings of Lagas to a period earlier than that
of Sargon of Akkad.

Professor Hilprecht would place E-dingir- ana-gin after
Lugal-zaggisi, and see in the Stela of the Vultures a
monument of the revenge taken by the Sumerian rulers
of Lagas for the conquest of the country by the inhabitants
of the north. But it is equally possible that it marks the
successful reaction of Chaldaea against the power established
by Lugal-zaggisi. However this may be, the dynasty of
Lagas (to which Professor Hilprecht has added a new king,
En-Khegal) reigned in peace for some time, and belonged
to the same age as the first dynasty of Ur. This was
founded by a certain Lugal-kigubnidudu, whose inscrip
tions have been found at Niffer. The dynasty which arose
at Ur in later days (cir. B.C. 2700), under Ur-Gur and
Dungi, which has hitherto been known as " the first
dynasty of Ur," is thus dethroned from its position, and
becomes the second. The succeeding dynasty, which also
made Ur its capital, and whose kings, Ine-Sin, Pur- Sin II.,
and Gimil-Sin, were the immediate predecessors of the first

xviii EDITOR S PREFACE

dynasty of Babylon (to which Khammurabi belonged),
must henceforth be termed the third.

Among the latest acquisitions from Tello are the seals
of the patesi, Lugal-usumgal, which finally remove all
doubt as to the identity of " Sargani, king of the city,"
with the famous Sargon of Akkad. The historical accuracy
of Sargon s annals, moreover, have been fully vindicated.
Not only have the American excavators found the con
temporary monuments of him and his son Naram-Sin,
but also tablets dated in the years of his campaigns against
"the land of the Amorites." In short, Sargon of Akkad,
so lately spoken of as "a half-mythical 1 personage, has
now emerged into the full glare of authentic history.

That the native chronologists had sufficient material
for reconstructing the past history of their country, is also
now clear. The early Babylonian contract-tablets are
dated by events which officially distinguished the several
years of a king s reign, and tablets have been discovered
compiled at the close of a reign which give year by year
the events which thus characterised them. One of these
tablets, for example, from the excavations at Niffer, begins
with the words : (1) " The year when Par-Sin (II.) becomes
king. (2) The year when Pur- Sin the king conquers
Urbillum," and ends with " the year when Gimil-Sin
becomes King of Ur, and conquers the land of Zabsali"
in the Lebanon.

Of special interest to the biblical student are the dis
coveries made by Mr. Pinches among some of the Babylonian
tablets which have recently been acquired by the British
Museum. Four of them relate to no less a personage than

EDITOR S PREFACE xix

Kudur-Laghghamar or Chedor-laomer, "King of Elam,"

as well as to Eri-Aku or Arioch, King of Larsa, and his
son Dur-makh-ilani ; to Tudghula or Tid al, the son of
Gazza[ni], and to their war against Babylon in the time
of Khammu[rabi]. In one of the texts the question is
asked, " Who is the son of a king s daughter who has sat
on the throne of royalty ? Dur-rnakh-ilani, the son of
Eri-Aku, the son of the lady Kur . . . has sat on the
throne of royalty," from which it may perhaps be inferred
that Eri-Aku was the son of Kudur-Laghghamar s daughter;
and in another we read, " Who is Kudur-Laghghamar, the
doer of mischief? He has gathered together the Umman
Manda, has devastated the land of Bel (Babylonia), and
[has marched] at their side." The Umman Manda were
the "Barbarian Hordes" of the Kurdish mountains, on
the northern frontier of Elam, and the name corresponds
with that of the Goyyim or "nations in the fourteenth
chapter of Genesis. We here see Kudur-Laghghamar
acting as their suzerain lord. Unfortunately, all four
tablets are in a shockingly broken condition, and it is
therefore difficult to discover in them a continuous sense,
or to determine their precise nature.

They have, however, been supplemented by further
discoveries made by Dr. Scheil at Constantinople. Among
the tablets preserved there, he has found letters from
Khammurabi to his vassal Sin-idinnam of Larsa, from
which we learn that Sin-idinnam had been dethroned by
the Elamites Kudur-Mabug and Eri-Aku, and had fled for
refuge to the court of Khammurabi at Babylon. In the
war which subsequently broke out between Khammurabi

xx EDITOR S PREFACE

and Kudur-Laghghamar, the King of Elam (who, it would
seem, exercised suzerainty over Babylonia for seven years),
Sin-idinnam gave material assistance to the Babylonian
monarch, and Khammurabi accordingly bestowed presents
upon him as a " recompense for his valour on the day of
the overthrow of Kudur-Laghghamar."

I must also refer to a fine scarab found in the rubbish-
mounds of the ancient city of Kom Ombos, in Upper
Egypt which bears upon it the name of Sutkhu-Apopi.
It shows us that the author of the story of the Expulsion
of the Hyksos, in calling the king Ba-Apopi, merely, like
an orthodox Egyptian, substituted the name of the god
of Heliopolis for that of the foreign deity. Equally
interesting are the scarabs brought to light by Professor
Flinders Petrie, on which a hitherto unknown Ya aqob-hal
or Jacob-el receives the titles of a Pharaoh

In volumes VII., VIII., and IX., Professor Maspero
concludes his monumental work on the history of the
ancient East. The overthrow of the Persian empire by
the Greek soldiers of Alexander marks the beginning of
a new era. Europe at last enters upon the stage of history,
and becomes the heir of the culture and civilisation of the
Orient. The culture which had grown up and developed
on the banks of the Euphrates and Nile passes to the
West, and there assumes new features and is inspired
with a new spirit. The East perishes of age and decrepi
tude ; its strength is outworn, its power to initiate is past.
The long ages through which it had toiled to build up
the fabric of civilisation are at an end ; fresh races are
needed to carry on the work which it had achieved. Greece

EDITOR S PREFACE xxi

appears upon the scene, and behind Greece looms the
colossal figure of the Eoman Empire.

During the past decade, excavation has gone on apace in
Egypt and Babylonia, and discoveries of a startling and
unexpected nature have followed in the wake of excavation.
Ages that seemed prehistoric step suddenly forth into the
daydawn of history ; personages whom a sceptical criticism
had consigned to the land of myth or fable are clothed once
more with flesh and blood, and events which had been long
forgotten demand to be recorded and described. In Baby
lonia, for example, the excavations at Niffer and Tello have
shown that Sargon of Akkad, so far from being a creature
of romance, was as much a historical monarch as Nebucha
drezzar himself; monuments of his reign have been dis
covered, and we learn from them that the empire he is said
to have founded had a very real existence. Contracts
have been found dated in the years when he was occupied
in conquering Syria and Palestine, and a cadastral survey
that was made for the purposes of taxation mentions a
Canaanite who had been appointed "governor of the land
of the Amorites." Even a postal service had already been
established along the high-roads which knit the several parts
of the empire together, and some of the clay seals which
franked the letters are now in the Museum of the Louvre.

At Susa, M. de Morgan, the late director of the Service
of Antiquities in Egypt, has been excavating below the
remains of the Achaemenian period, among the ruins of the
ancient Elamite capital. Here he has found numberless
historical inscriptions, besides a text in hieroglyphics
which may cast light on the origin of the cuneiform

xxii EDITOR S PREFACE

characters. But the most interesting of his discoveries
are two Babylonian monuments that were carried off, by
Elamite conquerors from the cities of Babylonia. One of
them is a long inscription of about 1200 lines belonging to
Manistusu, one of the early Babylonian kings, whose name
has been met with at Niffer ; the other is a monument of
Naram-Sin, the Son of Sargon of Akkad, which it seems
was brought as booty to Susa by Simti-silkhak, the grand
father, perhaps, of Eriaku or Arioch.

In Armenia, also, equally important inscriptions have
been found by Belck and Lehmann. More than two
hundred new ones have been added to the list of Vannic
texts. It has been discovered from them that the kingdom
of Biainas or Van was founded by Ispuinis and Menuas,
who rebuilt Van itself and the other cities which they had
previously sacked and destroyed. The older name of the
country was Kumussu, and it may be that the language
spoken in it was allied to that of the Hittites, since a tablet
in hieroglyphics of the Hittite type has been unearthed at
Toprak Kaleh. One of the newly-found inscriptions of
Sarduris III. shows that the name of the Assyrian god,
hitherto read Bamman or Bimmon, was really pronounced
Hadad. It describes a war of the Vannic king against
Assur-nirari, son of Hadad-nirari (A-da-di-ni-ra-ri) of
Assyria, thus revealing not only the true form of the
Assyrian name, but also the parentage of the last king
of the older Assyrian dynasty. From another inscription,
belonging to Busas II., the son of Argistis, we learn that
campaigns were carried on against the Hittites and the
Moschi in the latter years of Sennacherib s reign, and

EDITOR S PREFACE xxiii

therefore only just before the irruption of the Kimmerians
into the northern regions of Western Asia.

The two German explorers have also discovered the site
and even the ruins of Muzazir, called Ardinis by the people
of Van. They lie on the hill of Shkenna, near Topsana, on
the road between Kelishin and Sidek. In the immediate
neighbourhood the travellers succeeded in deciphering a
monument of Rusas I., partly in Vannic, partly in Assyrian,
from which it appears that the Vannic king did not, after
all, commit suicide when the news of the fall of Muzazir
was brought to him, as is stated by Sargon, but that, on
the contrary, he " marched against the mountains of
Assyria " and restored the fallen city itself. Urzana, the
King of Muzazir, had fled to him for shelter, and after the
departure of the Assyrian army he was sent back by Eusas
to his ancestral domains. The whole of the district in
which Muzazir was situated was termed Lulu, and was
regarded as the southern province of Ararat. In it was
Mount Nizir, on whose summit the ark of the Chaldaean
Noah rested, and which is therefore rightly described in
the Book of Genesis as one of " the mountains of Ararat."
It was probably the Eowandiz of to-day.

The discoveries made by Drs. Belck and Lehmann,
however, have not been confined to Vannic texts. At the
sources of the Tigris Dr. Lehmann has found two Assyrian
inscriptions of the Assyrian king, Shalrnaneser II., one
dated in his fifteenth and the other in his thirty-first year,
and relating to his campaigns against Aram of Ararat. He
has further found that the two inscriptions previously
known to exist at the same spot, and believed to belong

xxiv EDITOR S PREFACE

to Tiglath-Ninip and Assur-nazir-pal, are really those of
Shalmaneser II., and refer to the war of his seventh year.

But it is from Egypt that the most revolutionary revela
tions have come. At Abydos and Kom el-Ahmar, opposite
El-Kab, monuments have been disinterred of the kings of
the first and second dynasties, if not of even earlier princes ;
while at Negada, north of Thebes, M. de Morgan has found
a tomb which seems to have been that of Menes himself.
A new world of art has been opened out before us ; even
the hieroglyphic system of writing is as yet immature and
strange. But the art is already advanced in many respects ;
hard stone was cut into vases and bowls, and even into
statuary of considerable artistic excellence ; glazed porce
lain was already made, and bronze, or rather copper, was
fashioned into weapons and tools. The writing material,
as in Babylonia, was often clay, over which seal-cylinders
of a Babylonian pattern were rolled. Equally Babylonian
are the strange and composite animals engraved on some
of the objects of this early age, as well as the structure
of the tombs, which were built, not of stone, but of crude
brick, with their external walls panelled and pilastered.
Professor Hommel s theory, which brings Egyptian civili
sation from Babylonia along with the ancestors of the
historical Egyptians, has thus been largely verified.

But the historical Egyptians were not the first inhabi
tants of the valley of the Nile. Not only have palaeolithic
implements been found on the plateau of the desert ; the
relics of neolithic man have turned up in extraordinary
abundance. When the historical Egyptians arrived with
their copper weapons and their system of writing, the land

EDITOR S PREFACE xxv

was already occupied by a pastoral people, who had at
tained a high level of neolithic culture. Their implements
of flint are the most beautiful and delicately finished that
have ever been discovered; they were able to carve vases
of great artistic excellence out of the hardest of stone, and
their pottery was of no mean quality. Long after the
country had come into the possession of the historical
dynasties, and had even been united into a single monarchy,
their settlements continued to exist on the outskirts of the
desert, and the neolithic culture that distinguished them
passed only gradually away. By degrees, however, they
intermingled with their conquerors from Asia, and thus
formed the Egyptian race of a later day. But they had
already made Egypt what it has been throughout the
historical period. Under the direction of the Asiatic
immigrants and of the engineering science whose first
home had been in the alluvial plain of Babylonia, they
accomplished those great works of irrigation which con
fined the Nile to its present channel, which cleared away
the jungle and the swamp that had formerly bordered the
desert, and turned them into fertile fields. Theirs were
the hands which carried out the plans of their more
intelligent masters, and cultivated the valley when once
it had been reclaimed. The Egypt of history was the
creation of a twofold race : the Egyptians of the monu
ments supplied the controlling and directing power; the
Egyptians of the neolithic graves bestowed upon it their
labour and their skill.

The period treated of by Professor Maspero in these
volumes is one for which there is an abundance of

xxvi EDITOR S PREFACE

materials such as do not exist for the earlier portions of
his history. The evidence of the monuments is supple
mented by that of the Hebrew and classical writers. But
on this very account it is in some respects more difficult to
deal with, and the conclusions arrived at by the historian
are more open to question and dispute. In some cases
conflicting accounts are given of an event which seem
to rest on equally good authority ; in other cases, there
is a sudden failure of materials just where the thread of
the story becomes most complicated. Of this the decline
and fall of the Assyrian empire is a prominent example ;
for our knowledge of it, we have still to depend chiefly on
the untrustworthy legends of the Greeks. Our views must
be coloured more or less by our estimate of Herodotos ;
those who, like myself, place little or no confidence in
what he tells us about Oriental affairs will naturally form
a very different idea of the death-struggle of Assyria from
that formed by writers who still see in him the Father of
Oriental History.

Even where the native monuments have come to our
aid, they have not unfrequently introduced difficulties and
doubts where none seemed to exist before, and have made
the task of the critical historian harder than ever. Cyrus
and his forefathers, for instance, turn out to have been
kings of Anzan, and not of Persia, thus explaining why it
is that the Neo-Susian language appears by the side of the
Persian and the Babylonian as one of the three official
languages of the Persian empire ; but we still have to
learn what was the relation of Anzan to Persia on the
one hand, and to Susa on the other, and when it was that

EDITOR S PREFACE xxvii

Cyrus of Anzan became also King of Persia. In the
Annalistic Tablet, he is called "King of Persia for the
first time in the ninth year of Nabonidos.

Similar questions arise as to the position and nationality
of Astyages. He is called in the inscriptions, not a Mede,
but a Manda a name which, as I showed many years ago,
meant for the Babylonian a " barbarian of Kurdistan.
I have myself little doubt that the Manda over whom
Astyages ruled were the Scythians of classical tradition,
who, as may be gathered from a text published by Mr.
Strong, had occupied the ancient kingdom of Ellipi. It is
even possible that in the Madyes of Herodotos, we have a
reminiscence of the Manda of the cuneiform inscriptions.
That the Greek writers should have confounded the Mada
or Medes with the Manda or Barbarians is not surprising ;
we find even Berossos describing one of the early dynasties
of Babylonia as "Median" where Manda, and not Mada,
must plainly be meant.

These and similar problems, however, will doubtless be
cleared up by the progress of excavation and research.
Perhaps M. de Morgan s excavations at Susa may throw
some light on them, but it is to the work of the German
expedition, which has recently begun the systematic
exploration of the site of Babylon, that we must chiefly
look for help. The Babylon of Nabopolassar and Nebu
chadrezzar rose on the ruins of Nineveh, and the story of
the downfall of the Assyrian empire must still be lying
buried under its mounds.

A. H. SAYCE.

TRANSLATOR S PREFACE

IN completing the translation of this great work, I have
to thank Professor Maspero for kindly permitting me to
appeal to him on various questions which arose while
preparing the translation. His patience and courtesy have
alike been unfailing in every matter submitted for his
decision.

I am indebted to Miss Bradbury for kindly supplying,
in the midst of much other literary work for the Egypt
Exploration Eund, the translation of the chapter on the
gods, and also of the earlier parts of some of the first
chapters. She has, moreover, helped me in my own share
of the work with many suggestions and hints, which her
intimate connection with the late Miss Amelia B. Edwards
fully qualified her to give.

As in the original there is a lack of uniformity in the
transcription and accentuation of Arabic names, I have
ventured to alter them in several cases to the form most
familiar to English readers.

The spelling of the ancient Egyptian words has, at
Professor Maspero s request, been retained throughout,

xxx TRANSLATOR S PREFACE

with the exception that the French ou has heen invariably
represented by ?/, e.g. Khnoumou by Khnumu.

By an act of international courtesy, the director of the
Imprimerie Nationale has allowed the beautifully cut hiero
glyphic and cuneiform type used in the original to be
employed in the English edition, and I take advantage
of this opportunity to express to him our thanks and
appreciation of his graceful act.

M. L. McCLURE.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

THE NILE ANDtEGYPT

PAGE

The River and its Influence upon the Formation of the Country The

Oldest Inhabitants of the Valley and its First Political Organization 3

CHAPTER II.

THE GODS OF EGYPT

Their Number and their Nature The Feudal Gods, Living and Dead
The Triads Temples and Priests The Cosmogonies of the Delta
The Enneads of Heliopolis and of Hermopolis ..... 107

CHAPTER III.

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

The Divine Dynasties : Ra, Shu, Osiris, Sit, Horus-Thot, and the Inven
tion of Sciences and Writing-Menes, and the Three First Human
Dynasties . 221

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Ramses II Frontispiece

The banks of the Nile near Beni-Suef

A line of laden camels emerges from a hollow of the undulating road

A dainty village looks forth smiling from beneath its palm trees

Gebel Abufeda, dreaded by the sailors . . . 10

Part of Gebel Shekh Heridi

The hill of Kasr Es-Sayyad 12

Entrance to the First Cataract . . . 14

Entrance to Nubia ........... 15

League beyond league, the hills stretch on in low ignoble outline . 16

The First Cataract : Entrance to the great rapids ..... 17

Entrance to the Second Cataract ........ 20

An attempt to represent the Egyptian universe ...... 22

The town and neighborhood of Siut in the month of September, during

the inundation ........... 31

Assiout ............. 35

Sycamores at the entrance of the Mudiriyeh of Asyut .... 36

The forest of date-palms at Bedreshen ....... 37

Acacias at the entrance to a garden outside Ekhmim .... 40

She-ass and her foal ........... 41

The UraBus of Egypt 42

The Ibis of Egypt 44

The Mormyrus Oxyrhynchus ......... 45

Ahaka . . . 46

Two fishermen carrying a latus which they have just caught ... 47

The Nile-god 48

The shrine of the Nile at Biggeh 49

Nile-gods from the temple of Seti I., at Abydos, bringing food to every

Nome of Egypt ........... 51

Libyan Mountains ........... 54

The noble type of Egyptian ......... 59

vii

viii LIST OF ILLUSTBATIONS

PAGE

An Egyptian of the ordinary type 60

Head of a Theban mummy 60

Head of a fellah of Upper Egypt 60

A fellah woman with the features of an ancient king .... 62
Decorated wrappings from a mummy (Thebes Tombs) .... 61
Negro prisoners wearing the panther s skin as a loin-cloth ... 66
Notable wearing the large cloak over the left shoulder .... 68

Priest wearing the panther s skin across the breast 68

A dignitary wrapped in his large cloak . 70

Costume of Egyptian woman, spinning . 72

Man wearing wig and necklaces 73

The boomerang and fighting bow ........ 74

Votive axe of Thothmes III 75

King holding the baton, the white mace, and the club .... 76
Fishing in the marshes : Two fish speared at one stroke of the harpoon . 77
Hunting in the marshes: Encountering and spearing a hippopotamus . 78
Hunting in the desert : Bull, lion, and oryx pierced with arrows . . 79

Pack from the tomb of Ptahhotpoii . .79

Catching animals with the bola 80

A swineherd and his pigs .......... 82

The Egyptian lotus 84

Ploughing . 87

An Egyptian sakia (well) showing method of procuring water for irrigation 88
Boatmen fighting on a canal communicating with the Nile ... 91

A great Egyptian lord, Ti, and his wife 92

Solemn sacrificial procession of the fatted bull . . . . . .107

King Seti I. kneeling . 107

The goddess Naprit, Napit 108

Some fabulous beasts of the Egyptian desert . . . . . .113

Nuit, the starry one . . . . . . . . . . .115

The Goose-god facing the Cat-goddess, the Lady oi Heaven . . .116
The cow Hathor, the Lady of Heaven ....... 117

The twelve stages in the life of the sun, and its twelve forms throughout

the day 118

Egyptian conception of the principal constellations of the northern sky . 123
The lunar bark, self-propelled, under the protection of the two eyes . .124
The Haunch and the female hippopotamus ...... 125

Orion, Sothis, and two Horus-planets standing in their barks . . . 127

Sahu-Orion 128

Orion and the cow Sothis separated by the Sparrow-hawk . . . .129
Amon-Ra, as Minu of Coptos, and invested with his emblems . . . 131
Anhuri 133

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix

PAGE

The hawk -headed Horus . 134

The Horus of Hibonii, on the back of the gazelle 136

The cat-headed Bast ........... 138

The Fennec, supposed prototype of the Typhonian animal . . . 139

Two Cynocephali in adoration before the rising sun 139

Nit of Sals 141

Imhotpu 142

Nofirtumu ............. 143

Horus, son of Isis ........... 145

The black shadow coming out into the sunlight 147

The august souls of Osiris and Horus in adoration before the Solar Disk . 148

The king after his coronation receiving the imposition of the Sa . . 150

Sacrificing to the dead in the tomb chapel 161

Phtah as a mummy 164

The sacred bull Hapis or Mnevis . . . . . . . .167

Open-air offerings to the serpent 169

The peasants offering to the Sycamore ....... 171

The sacrifice of the bull The officiating priest lassoing the victim . . 173

Shu uplifting the sky 180

Shu forcibly separating Sibu and Xuit ....... 182

The Didti of Osiris -183

Osiris-Onnophris, whip and crook in hand . . . . . .185

Isis, wearing the cow-horn head-dress ....... 187

Nephthys, as a wailing woman . . . . . . . . .189

The god Sit, fighting 189

Horus, the avenger of his father, and Anubis tjapuaitu .... 192
The sun springing from an opening lotus flower in the form of the child

Horus 193

The plain and mounds of Heliopolis fifty years ago . . . . .194

Harmakhuiti-Harmakhis, the great god . 196

Khopri, the Scarabasus god, in his bark ....... 198

The twin lions, Shu and Tafnuit 201

The four funerary genii, Khabsonuf, Tiumautf, Hapi, and Amsit . . 204

The Ibis Thot 208

The Cynocephalous Thot 208

The Hermopolitan Ogdoad 212

Arnon 213

The Theban Ennead 215

Isis, having fled to the marshes, suckles Horus under the protection of

the Gods . 221

Column of the Temple of Denderah ..." 222

Khnumu modelling man upon a potter s table ...... 224

x LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS

PAGE

At the first hour of the day the sun embarks for his journey through Egypt 280

Sokhit, the lioness-headed .......... 236

Nuit, the cow, sustained above the earth by Shu and the support-Gods . 242
Three of the divine amulets preserved in the Temple of Ait-Nobsu at the

Roman period ........... 244

The Osirian Triad, Horus, Osiris, Isis 250

Isis-Hathor, cow-headed . . . . . . . . . .253

The Osrian Mummy prepared and laid upon the funerary couch by the

Jackal Anubis ........... 256

The reception of the Mummy by Anubis at the door of the tomb, and

the opening of the mouth ......... 257

Osiris in Hades, accompanied by Isis, Amentit, and Nephthys, receives

the homage of truth 259

The deceased climbing the slope of the mountain of the West . . . 260

The Mummy of Sutimosu clasping his soul in his arms . . 261

Cynocephali drawing the net in which souls are caught . . . 262
The deceased and his wife seated in front of the Sycamore of Nuit and

receiving the bread and water of the next world . . . 264

The deceased piercing a serpent with his lance ...... 266

The good cow Hathor carrying the dead man and his soul . . 267
Anubis and Thot weighing the heart of the deceased in the scales of

Truth .... -268

The deceased is brought before the shrine of Osiris the Judge by

Horus ......- 269

The occupations of Ani in the Elysian Fields . 273

The Manes tilling the ground and reaping in the fields of lalu . . . 275

tashbiti -276

The dead man and his wife playing at draughts in the Pavilion . 277

The dead man sailing in his bark along the canals of the fields of lalu . 278

Boat of a funerary fleet on its way to Abydos . ... 279
The Solar bark into which the dead man is about to enter

The Solar bark passing into the mountain of the West .... 282

The soul descending the sepulchral shaft on its way to rejoin the mummy 284
The soul on the edge of the funeral couch with its hands on the heart of

the mummy ..... 285

The soul going forth into its garden by day . 287

An incident in the wars of Harmakhis and Sit . 289

The Gods fighting for the Magician who has invoked them . 304

The child Horus on the crocodiles 306

A dead man receiving the breath of life ..... . 81(

Thot records the years of the life of Ramses II. .315

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi

PAGE

The table of the kings in the temple of Seti I. at Abydos .
Satit presents the Pharaoh Amenothes III. to Khumu

Anukit

The step-pyramid of Saqqara ... ...

One of the chambers of the step-pyramid, with its wall-covering of glazed

tiles 356

THE NILE AND EGYPT

THE RIVER AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON THE FORMATION AND CHARACTER OF

THE COUNTRY THE OLDEST INHABITANTS OF THE LAND THE FIRST

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF THE VALLEY.

The Delta : its gradual formation, its structure, its canals The valley of
Egypt The two arms of the river The Eastern Nile The appearance of its
banks The hills The gorge of Gebel Silsileh The cataracts: the falls of
Asivdn Nubia The rapids of Wddy Half ah The TaJcazze The Slue Nile
and the White Nile.

The sources of the Nile The Egyptian cosmography The four pillars and
the four upholding mountains The celestial Nile the source of the terrestrial
Nile the Southern Sea and the islands of Spirits The tears of Isis The rise of
the Nile The Green Nile and the Red Nile The opening of the dykes The
fall of the Nile The river at its lowest ebb.

The alluvial deposits and the effects of the inundation upon the soil of Egypt

Paucity of the flora : aquatic plants, the papyrus and the lotus ; the sycamore

and the date-palm, the acacias, the dom-palms The fauna : the domestic and

wild animals ; serpents, the urseus ; the hippopotamus and the crocodile ; birds ;

fish, the fahaka.

The Nile god : his form and its varieties The goddess Mirit The supposed
VOL. I. B

( 2 )

sources of the Nile at Elephantine The festivals of Gebel SilsilehHymn to the
Nile from papyri in the British Museum.

The names of the Nile and Egypt : Eomitd and Qimit Antiquity of the
Egyptian people Their first horizon The hypothesis of their Asiatic origin
The probability of their African origin The language and its Semitic affinities
The race and its principal types.

The primitive civilization of Egypt Its survival into historic times The
women of Amon Marriage Bights of women and children Houses Furni
ture Dress Jewels Wooden and metal arms Primitive life Fishing and
hunting The lasso and " lolas " The domestication of animals Plants used
for food The lotus Cereals The hoe and the plough.

The conquest of the valley Dykes Basins Irrigation The princes The
nomes The first local principalities Late organization of the Delta Character
of its inhabitants Gradual division of the principalities and changes of their
areas The god of the city.

THE BANKS OF THE NILE NEAR BENI-SUEF. 1

CHAPTER I

THE NILE AND EGYPT

The river and its influence upon the formation of the country The oldest
inhabitants of the valley and its first political organization.

A LONG-, low, level shore, scarcely rising
above the sea, a chain of vaguely defined
and ever-shifting lakes and marshes,
then the triangular plain beyond,
whose apex is thrust thirty leagues
into the land this, the Delta of
Egypt, has gradually been acquired
from the sea, and is as it were the gift
of the Nile. 2 The Mediterranean once

1 From a drawing by Boudier, after a photo
graph by the Dutch traveller Insinger, taken in
1884.

2 The same expression has been attributed
to Hecataeus of Miletus. It has often been observed that this phrase
seems Egyptian on the face of it, and it certainly recalls such forms of
expression as the following, taken from a formula frequently found on funerary
stelae : "All things created by heaven, given by earth, brought by the Nile

4 THE NILE AND EGYPT

reached to the foot of the sandy plateau on which stand
the Pyramids, and formed a wide gulf where now stretches
plain beyond plain of the Delta. The last undulations of
the Arabian hills, from Gebel Mokattarn to Gebel Geneffeh,
were its boundaries on the east, while a sinuous and shallow
channel running between Africa and Asia united the Medi
terranean to the Red Sea. Westward, the littoral followed
closely the contour of the Libyan plateau ; but a long
limestone spur broke away from it at about 31 N., and
terminated in Cape Abukir. The alluvial deposits first
filled up the depths of the bay, and then, under the
influence of the currents which swept along its eastern
coasts, accumulated behind that rampart of sand-hills
whose remains are still to be seen near Benha. Thus
was formed a miniature Delta, whose structure pretty
accurately corresponded with that of the great Delta of
to-day. Here the Nile divided into three divergent streams,
roughly coinciding with the southern courses of the Rosetta
and Damietta branches, and with the modern canal of Abu
Meneggeh. The ceaseless accumulation of mud brought
down by the river soon overpassed the first limits, and
steadily encroached upon the sea until it was carried
beyond the shelter furnished by Cape AbukJr. Thence it
was gathered into the great littoral current flowing from
Africa to Asia, and formed an incurvated coast-line ending
in the headland of Casios, on the Syrian frontier. From
that time Egypt made no further increase towards the

from its mysterious sources" Nevertheless, up to the present time, the hiero
glyphic texts have yielded nothing altogether corresponding to the exact terms
of the Greek historians gift (owpov) of the Nile, or its natural product (epyov).

THE FORMATION OF THE DELTA 5

north, and her coast remains practically such as it was
thousands of years ago : l the interior alone has suffered
change, having been dried up, hardened, and gradually
raised. Its inhabitants thought they could measure the
exact length of time in which this work of creation had
been accomplished. According to the Egyptians, Menes,
the first of their mortal kings, had found, so they said, the
valley under water. The sea came in almost as far as the
Fayum, and, excepting the province of Thebes, the whole
country was a pestilential swamp. Hence, the necessary
period for the physical formation of Egypt would cover
some centuries after Menes. This is no longer considered
a sufficient length of time, and some modern geologists
declare that the Nile must have worked at the formation of
its own estuary for at least seventy-four thousand years. 2
This figure is certainly exaggerated, for the alluvium would
gain on the shallows of the ancient gulf far more rapidly
than it gains upon the depths of the Mediterranean. But
even though we reduce the period, we must still admit that
the Egyptians little suspected the true age of their country.
Not only did the Delta long precede the coming of Menes,
but its plan was entirely completed before the first arrival
of the Egyptians. The Greeks, full of the mysterious

1 ELIE DE BEAUMONT, " The great distinction of the Nile Delta lies in
the almost uniform persistence of its coast-line. . . . The present sea-coast
of Egypt is little altered from that of three thousand years ago." The
latest observations prove it to be sinking and shrinking near Alexandria to
rise in the neighbourhood of Port Said.

2 Others, as for example SCHWEINFURTH, are more moderate in their
views, and think " that it must have taken about twenty thousand years for
that alluvial deposit which now forms the arable soil of Egypt to have
attained to its present depth and fertility."

THE NILE AND EGYPT

virtues which they attributed to numbers, discovered that
there were seven principal branches, and seven mouths of
the Nile, and that, as compared with these, the rest were
but false mouths. As a matter of fact, there were only
three chief outlets. The Canopic branch flowed westward,

r^SS^ 6 *"^

el^aiiam^g^}S(

.A*^,, ci^i^J&gt;f&gt;M /ygsu

THE MOUTH OF THE KILE PREVIOUS TO THE FORMATION OF THE DELTA.

and fell into the Mediterranean near Cape Abukir, at the
western extremity of the arc described by the coast-line.
The Pelusiac branch followed the length of the Arabian
chain, and flowed forth at the other extremity; and the
Sebennytic stream almost bisected the triangle contained
between the Canopic and Pelusiac channels. Two
thousand years ago, these branches separated from the
main river at the city of Cerkasoros, nearly four miles

THE APPEARANCE OF THE BANKS 7

north of the site where Cairo now stands. But after the
Pelusiac branch had ceased to exist, the fork of the river
gradually wore away the land from age to age, and is now
some nine miles lower down. 1 These three great water
ways are united by a network of artificial rivers and canals,
and by ditches some natural, others dug by the hand of
man, but all ceaselessly shifting. They silt up, close, open
again, replace each other, and ramify in innumerable
branches over the surface of the soil, spreading life and
fertility on all sides. As the land rises towards the south,
this web contracts and is less confused, while black mould
and cultivation alike dwindle, and the fawn-coloured line
of the desert comes into sight. The Libyan and Arabian
hills appear above the plain, draw nearer to each other,
and gradually shut in the horizon until it seems as though
they would unite. And there the Delta ends, and Egypt
proper has begun.

It is only a strip of vegetable mould stretching north
aiid south between regions of drought and desolation, a
prolonged oasis on the banks of the river, made by the
Nile, and sustained by the Nile. The whole length of the
land is shut in between two ranges of hills, roughly parallel
at a mean distance of about twelve miles. 2 During the

1 By the end of the Byzantine period, the fork of the river lay at some
distance south of Shetnufi, the present Shatanuf, which is the spot where it
now is. The Arab geographers call the head of the Delta Batn-el-Bagarah,
the Cow s Belly. AMPERE, in his Voyage en tfgypte et en Nubie, p. 120, says,
" May it not be that this name, denoting the place where the most fertile
part of Egypt begins, is a reminiscence of the Cow Goddess, of Isis, the
symbol of fecundity, and the personification of Egypt ? "

2 DE ROZIRE estimated the mean breadth as being only a little over
nine miles.

THE NILE AND EGYPT

earlier ages, the river filled all this intermediate space, and
the sides of the hills, polished, worn, blackened to their
7ery summits, still bear unmistakable traces of its action.
Wasted, and shrunken within the deeps of its ancient
bed, the stream now makes a way through its own thick
deposits of mud. The bulk of its waters keeps to the
east, and constitutes the true Nile, the " Great River " of
the hieroglyphic inscriptions. A second arm flows close to
the Libyan desert, here and there formed into canals, else
where left to follow its own course. From the head of the
Delta to the village of Derut it is called the Bahr-Yusuf ;
beyond Derut up to Gebel Silsileh it is the Ibrahimiyeh,
the Sohaglyeh, the Raian. But the ancient names are
unknown to us. This Western Nile dries up in winter
throughout all its upper courses: where it continues to flow,
it is by scanty accessions from the main Nile. It also
divides north of Henassieh, and by the gorge of Illahun
sends out a branch which passes beyond the hills into the
basin of the Fayiim. The true Nile, the Eastern Nile, is
less a river than a sinuous lake encumbered with islets and
sandbanks, and its navigable channel winds capriciously
between them, flowing with a strong and steady current
below the steep, black banks cut sheer through the alluvial
earth. There are light groves of the date-palm, groups
of acacia trees and sycamores, square patches of barley
or of wheat, fields of beans or of bersim, 1 and here and there
a long bank of sand which the least breeze raises into

1 Bersim is a kind of trefoil, the Trifolium Alexandrinum of LINN.EUS. It
is very common in Egypt, and the only plant of the kind generally cultivated
for fodder.

THE APPEARANCE OF THE BANKS

A LIXE OF LADEN CAMELS EMERGES FROM A HOLLOW OF THE UNDULATING ROA1*. 1

whirling clouds. And over all there broods a great silence,
scarcely broken by the cry of birds, or the song of

A DAINTY VILLAGE LOOKS FORTH SMILING FROM BENEATH ITS PALM TRE1&gt; -

rowers in a passing boat. Something of human life may

1 From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by lusinger, taken
in 1&gt;

2 From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by Insinger, taken
in 1886.

10 THE NILE AND EGYPT

stir on the banks, but it is softened into poetry by distance.
A half-veiled woman, bearing a bundle of herbs upon her
head, is driving her goats before her. An irregular line
of asses or of laden camels emerges from one hollow of
the undulating road only to disappear within another. A
group of peasants, crouched upon the shore, in the ancient
posture of knees to chin, patiently awaits the return of the
ferry-boat. A dainty village looks forth smiling from

GEBEL ABUFDA, DREADED BY THE SAILORS. 1

beneath its palm trees. Near at hand it is all naked
filth and ugliness : a cluster of low grey huts built of mud
and laths; two or three taller houses, whitewashed; an
enclosed square shaded by sycamores ; a few old men,
each seated peacefully at his own door; a confusion of
fowls, children, goats, and sheep ; half a dozen boats made
fast ashore. *But, as we pass on, the wretchedness all fades
away ; meanness of detail is lost in light, and long before

1 From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by Insinger, taken
in 1886.

THE HILLS 11

it disappears at a bend of the river, the village is again
clothed with gaiety and serene beauty. Day by day, the
landscape repeats itself. The same groups of trees
alternate with the same fields, growing green or dusty
in the sunlight according to the season of the year. With
the same measured flow, the Nile winds beneath its steep
banks and about its scattered islands. One village
succeeds another, each alike smiling and sordid under

PART OF GE15KL SHfcliH IIEKIDI. 1

its crown of foliage. The terraces of the Libyan hills,
away beyond the Western Nile, scarcely rise above the
horizon, and lie like a white edging between the green
of the plain and the blue of the sky. The Arabian hills
do not form one unbroken line, but a series of mountain
masses with their spurs, now approaching the river, and
now withdrawing to the desert at almost regular intervals.
At the entrance to the valley, rise Gebel Mokattam and

1 From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by Insinger, taken
in 1882.

THE NILE AND EGYPT

Gebel el-Ahmar. Gebel Hemur-Shemul and Gebel Shekh
Embarak next stretch in echelon from north to south, and
are succeeded by Gebel et-Ter, where, according to an old
legend, all the birds of the world are annually assembled. 1
Then follows Gebel Abufeda, dreaded by the sailors for

THE HILL OF KASK ES-SAYYAD.^

its sudden gusts. Limestone predominates throughout,
white or yellowish, broken by veins of alabaster, or of

1 In MAKRIZI S Description of Egypt we read: "Every year, upon a
certain day, all the herons (BouKiR, Ardea bubulcus of CUVIER) assemble at
this mountain. One after another, each puts his beak into a cleft of the hill
until the cleft closes upon one of them. And then forthwith all the others
fly away. But the bird which has been caught struggles until he dies, and
there his body remains until it has fallen into dust." The same tale is told
by other Arab writers, of which a list may be seen in ETIENN*: QUATREMKRE,
Memoires historiques et geographiques sur TEgypte et quelques conlrees voisines,
vol. i. pp. 31-33. It faintly recalls that ancient tradition of the Cleft at
Abydos, whereby souls must pass, as human-headed birds, in order to reach
the other world.

2 From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by Insinger, taken
in 1882.

GEBEL ABUFEDA 13

red and grey sandstones. Its horizontal strata are so
symmetrically laid one above another as to seem more
like the walls of a town than the side of a mountain. But
time has often dismantled their summits and loosened
their foundations. Man has broken into their fa9ades to
cut his quarries and his tombs ; while the current is
secretly undermining the base, wherein it has made
many a breach. As soon as any margin of mud has
collected between cliffs and river, halfah and wild plants
take hold upon it, and date-palms grow there whence
their seed, no one knows. Presently a hamlet rises at
the mouth of the ravine, among clusters of trees and
fields in miniature. Beyond Siut, the light becomes
more glowing, the air drier and more vibrating, and the
green of cultivation loses its brightness. The angular
outline of the dom-palm mingles more and more with that
of the common palm and of the heavy sycamore, and
the castor-oil plant increasingly abounds. But all these
changes come about so gradually that they are effected
before we notice them. The plain continues to contract.
At Thebes it is still ten miles wide ; at the gorge of
Gebelen it has almost disappeared, and at Gebel Silsileh
it has completely vanished. There, it was crossed by a
natural dyke of sandstone, through which the waters have
with difficulty scooped for themselves a passage. From
this point, Egypt is nothing but the bed of the Nile lying
between two escarpments of naked rock.

Further on the cultivable land reappears, but narrowed,
and changed almost beyond recognition. Hills, hewn out
of solid sandstone, succeed each other at distances of about

14 THE NILE AND EGYPT

two miles, low, crushed, sombre, and formless. Presently
a forest of palm trees, the last on that side, announces
Aswan and Nubia. Five banks of granite, ranged in
lines between latitude 24 and 18 N., cross Nubia from
east to west, and from north-east to south-west, like so
many ramparts thrown up between the Mediterranean
and the heart of Africa. The Nile has attacked them
from behind, and made its way over them one after
another in rapids which have been glorified by the

ENTRANCE TO THE FIRST CATARACT. 1

name of cataracts. Classic writers were pleased to
describe the river as hurled into the gulfs of Syne with
so great a roar that the people of the neighbourhood
were deafened by it. Even a colony of Persians, sent
thither by Cambyses, could not bear the noise of the
falls, and went forth to seek a quieter situation. The first
cataract is a kind of sloping and sinuous passage six and
a quarter miles in length, descending from the island of
Philse to the port of Aswan, the aspect of its approach
1 View taken from the hills opposite Elephantine, by Insinger, in 1884.

THE FALLS OF ASWAN 15

relieved and brightened by the ever green groves of
Elephantine. Beyond Elephantine are cliffs and sandy
beaches, chains of blackened "roches moutonnees" mark
ing out the beds of the currents, and fantastic reefs,
sometimes bare and sometimes veiled by long grasses
and climbing plants, in which thousands of birds have
made their nests. There are islets too, occasionally large
enough to have once supported something of a population,
such as Amerade, Salug, Sehel. The granite threshold

ENTRANCE TO NUBIA 1

of Nubia, is broken beyond Sehel, but its debris, massed
in disorder against the right bank, still seem to dispute
the passage of the waters, dashing turbulently and roar
ing as they flow along through tortuous channels, where
every streamlet is broken up into small cascades.
The channel running by the left bank is always navigable.
During the inundation, the rocks and sandbanks of the
right side are completely under water, and their presence

1 View taken from the southern point of the island of Philae. From a
photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.

THE NILE AND EGYPT

is only betrayed by eddies. But on the river s reaching
its lowest point a fall of some six feet is established,
and there big boats, hugging the shore, are hauled up
by means of ropes, or easily drift down with the
current. All kinds of granite are found together in this
corner of Africa. There are the pink and red Syenites,
porphyritic granite, yellow granite, grey granite, both black
granite and white, and granites veined with black and
veined with white. As soon as these disappear behind us,
various sandstones begin to crop up, allied to the coarsest

LEAGUE BEYOND LEAGUE, THE HILLS STRETCH OX IN LOW IGNOBLE OUTLINE. 1

calcaire grassier. The hill bristle with small split blocks,
with peaks half overturned, with rough and denuded
mounds. League beyond league, they stretch in low
ignoble outline. Here and there a valley opens sharply
into the desert, revealing an infinite perspective of
summits and escarpments in echelon ooe behind another
to the furthest plane of the horizon, like motionless

1 From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by Insinger, taken
in 1881.

&lt;

H
oc

VOL. I.

NUBIA 1.0

caravans. The now confined river rushes on with a low,
deep murmur, accompanied night and day by the croak
ing of frogs and the rhythmic creak of the sakieh. 1 Jetties
of rough stone-work, made in unknown times by an un
known people, run out like breakwaters into midstream.
From time to time waves of sand are borne over, and
drown the narrow fields of durra and of barley. Scraps
of close, aromatic pasturage, acacias, date-palms, and
dom-palms, together with a few shrivelled sycamores, are
scattered along both banks. The ruins of a crumbling
pylon mark the site of some ancient city, and, overhanging
the water, is a vertical wall of rock honeycombed with
tombs. Amid these relics of another age, miserable huts,
scattered hamlets, a town or two surrounded with little
gardens are the only evidence that there is yet life in
Nubia. South of Wady Halfah, the second granite bank
is broken through, and the second cataract spreads its
rapids over a length of four leagues : the archipelago
numbers more than 350 islets, of which some sixty have
houses upon them and yield harvests to their inhabitants.
The main characteristics of the first two cataracts are
repeated with slight variations in the cases of the three
which follow, at Hannek, at G-uerendid, and El-Hu-mar.
It is Egypt still, but a joyless Egypt bereft of its bright-

1 The sakieh is made of a notch-wheel fixed vertically on a horizontal axle,
and is actuated by various cog-wheels set in continuous motion by oxen or
asses. A long chain of earthenware vessels brings up the water either from
the river itself, or from some little branch canal, and empties it into a
system of troughs and reservoirs. Thence, it flows forth to be distributed
over all the neighbouring land.

THE NILE AND EGYPT

ness ; impoverished, disfigured, and almost desolate.
There is the same double wall of hills, now closely con
fining the valley, and again withdrawing from each other
as though to flee into the desert. Everywhere are
moving sheets of sand, steep black banks with their

ENTRANCE TO THE SECOND CATAKACT. 1

narrow strips of cultivation, villages which are scarcely
visible on account of the lowness of their huts. The
sycamore ceases at Gebel-Barkal, date-palms become

1 View taken from the top of the rocks of Abusir, after a photograph by
Insinger, in 1881.

JAUMA IOMA 21

fewer and finally disappear. The Nile alone has not
changed. And it was at Philae, so it is at Berber.
Here, however, on the right bank, GOO leagues from the
sea, is its first affluent, the Takazze, which intermit
tently brings to it the waters of Northern Ethiopia.
At Khartum, the single channel in which the river flowed
divides ; and two other streams are opened up in a
southerly direction, each of them apparently equal in
volume to the main stream. Which is the true Nile ?
Is it the Blue Nile, which seems to come down from the
distant mountains ? Or is it the White Nile, which has
traversed the immense plains of equatorial Africa. The
old Egyptians never knew. The river kept the secret of
its source from them as obstinately as it withheld it
from us until a few years ago. Vainly did their victori
ous armies follow the Nile for months together as they
pursued the tribes who dwelt upon its banks, only to
find it as wide, as full, as irresistible in its progress
as ever. It was a fresh-water sea, and sea iaumd,
ioma was the name by which they called it.

The Egyptians therefore never sought its source. They
imagined the whole universe to be a large box, nearly
rectangular in form, whose greatest diameter was from
south to north, and its least from east to west. The
earth, with its alternate continents and seas, formed the
bottom of the box ; it was a narrow, oblong, and slightly
concave floor, with Egypt in its centre. The sky stretched
over it like an iron ceiling, flat according to some, vaulted
according to others. Its earthward face was capriciously
sprinkled with lamps hung from strong cables, and which,

THE NILE AND EGYPT

extinguished or unperceived by day, were lighted, or
became visible to our eyes, at night. 1 Since this ceiling
could not remain in mid-air without support, four columns,

AN ATTEMPT TO REPRESENT THE EGYPTIAN UNIVERSE. 5 *

or rather four forked trunks of trees, similar to those which
maintained the primitive house, were supposed to uphold

1 The variants of the sign for night -fc-, "]T are most significant.
The end of the rope to which the star is attached passes over the sky, ^,
and falls free, as though arranged for drawing a lamp up and down when
lighting or extinguishing it. And furthermore, the name of the stars
Jchabiaa is the same word as that used to designate an ordinary lamp.

2 Section taken at Hermopolis. To the left, is the bark of the sun on
the celestial river.

THE POUR PILLARS AND THE FOUR MOUNTAINS 23

it. 1 But it was doubtless feared lest some tempest 2 should
overturn them, for they were superseded by four lofty
peaks, rising at the four cardinal points, and connected by
a continuous chain of mountains. The Egyptians knew
little of the northern peak : the Mediterranean, the " Very
Green," interposed between it and Egypt, and prevented
their coming near enough to see it. The southern peak
was named Apit-to, 3 the Horn of the Earth ; that on the
east was called Bakhu, the Mountain of Birth ; and the
western peak was known as Manu, sometimes as Onkhit,
the Eegion of Life. Bakhu was not a fictitious mountain,
but the highest of those distant summits seen from the
Nile in looking towards the Ked Sea. In the same way,
Manu answered to some hill of the Libyan desert, whose

1 Isolated, these pillars are represented under the form Y, but they are
often found together as supporting the sky YY r y. BRUGSCH, who was the
first to study their function, thought that all four were placed to the north,
and that they denoted to the Egyptians the mountains of Armenia. He
afterwards recognized that they were set up at each of the four cardinal
points, but thought that this conception of their use was not older than
Ptolemaic times. Like all Egyptologists, he afterwards admitted that these
pillars were always placed at the four cardinal points.

2 The words designating hurricanes, storms, or any kind of cataclysm,
are followed by the sign HfW, which represents the sky as detached and
falling from its four supporting pillars. Magicians sometimes threatened to
overthrow the four pillars if the gods would not obey their orders.

J Compare the expressions, NOTOU /cepas, Eo-n-epov /cepa?, of the Greek
geographers. BRUGSCH was the first to note that Apit-to is placed at the
southern extremity of the world. He has hypothetically identified the Horn
of the Earth with the Mountains of the Moon of the Arab geographers. I
believe that the Egyptians of the great Theban period (eighteenth to
twentieth dynasties) indicated by that name the mountain ranges of
Abyssinia. In the course of their raids along the Blue Nile and its
affluents, they saw this group of summits from afar, but they never
reached it.

24 THE NILE AND EGYPT

summit closed the horizon. When it was discovered that
neither Bakhu nor Manu were the limits of the world, the
notion of upholding the celestial roof was not on that
account given up. It was only necessary to withdraw the
pillars from sight, and imagine fabulous peaks, invested
with familiar names. These were not supposed to form the
actual boundary of the universe ; a great river analogous
to the Ocean-stream of the Greeks lay between them and
its utmost limits. This river circulated upon a kind of
ledge projecting along the sides of the box a little below
the continuous mountain chain upon which the starry
heavens were sustained. On the north of the ellipse, the
river was bordered by a steep and abrupt bank, which took
its rise at the peak of Manu on the west, and soon rose
high enough to form a screen between the river and
the earth. The narrow valley which it hid from view
was known as Dait from remotest times. Eternal night
enfolded that valley in thick darkness, and filled it with
dense air such as no living thing could breathe. Towards
the east the steep bank rapidly declined, and ceased
altogether a little beyond Bakhu, while the river flowed
on between low and almost level shores from east to south,
and then from south to west. The sun was a disc of fire
placed upon a boat. At the same equable rate, the river
carried it round the ramparts of the world. From evening
until morning it disappeared within the gorges of Dai t ;
its light did not then reach us, and it was night. From
morning until evening its rays, being no longer intercepted
by any obstacle, were freely shed abroad from one end of
the box to the other, and it was day. The Nile branched

THE CELESTIAL NILE 25

off from the celestial river at its southern bend ; l hence the
south was the chief cardinal point to the Egyptians, and
by that they oriented themselves, placing sunrise to their
left, and sunset to their right. Before they passed beyond
the defiles of Gebel Silsileh, they thought that the spot
whence the celestial waters left the sky was situate between
Elephantine and Philse, and that they descended in an
immense waterfall whose last leaps were at Syene. It may
be that the tales about the first cataract told by classic
writers are but a far-off echo of this tradition of a barbarous
age. Conquests carried into the heart of Africa forced the
Egyptians to recognize their error, but did not weaken
their faith in the supernatural origin of the river. They
only placed its source further south, and surrounded it
with greater marvels. They told how, by going up the
stream, sailors at length reached an undetermined country,
a kind of borderland between this world and the next, a
" Land of Shades," whose inhabitants were dwarfs, monsters,
or spirits. Thence they passed into a sea sprinkled with
mysterious islands, like those enchanted archipelagoes
which Portuguese and Breton mariners were wont to see
at times when on their voyages, and which vanished at
their approach. These islands were inhabited by serpents
with human voices, sometimes friendly and sometimes cruel
to the shipwrecked. He who went forth from the islands
could never more re-enter them : they were resolved into the

1 The classic writers themselves knew that, according to Egyptian belief,
the Nile flowed down from heaven. The legend of the Nile having its source
in the ocean stream was but a Greek transposition of the Egyptian doctrine,
which represented it as an arm of the celestial river whereon the suu sailed
round the earth.

26 THE NILE AND EGYPT

waters and lost within the bosom of the waves. A modern
geographer can hardly comprehend such fancies ; those of
Greek and Eoman times were perfectly familiar with them.
They believed that the Nile communicated with the Ked
Sea near Suakin, by means of the Astaboras, and this
was certainly the route which the Egyptians of old had
imagined for their navigators. The supposed communica
tion was gradually transferred farther and farther south ;
and we have only to glance over certain maps of the six
teenth and seventeenth centuries, to see clearly drawn
what the Egyptians had imagined the centre of Africa as
a great lake, whence issued the Congo, the Zambesi, and
the Nile. Arab merchants of the Middle Ages believed
that a resolute man could pass from Alexandria or Cairo to
the land of the Zindjes and the Indian Ocean by rising
from river to river. 1 Many of the legends relating to this
subject are lost, while others have been collected and
embellished with fresh features by Jewish and Christian
theologians. The Nile was said to have its source in
Paradise, to traverse burning regions inaccessible to man,
and afterwards to fall into a sea whence it made its way
to Egypt. Sometimes it carried down from its celestial
sources branches and fruits unlike any to be found on
earth. The sea mentioned in all these tales is perhaps a

1 JOINVILLE has given a special chapter to the description of the sources
and wonders of the Nile, in which he believed as firmly as in an article of
his creed. As late as the beginning of the seventeenth century, WENDELINUS
devoted part of his Admiranda Nili to proving that the river did not rise in
the earthly Paradise. At Gurnah, forty years ago, RHIND picked up a legend
which stated that the Nile flows down from the sky.

WONDERS OF THE NILE

less extravagant invention than we are at first inclined to
think. A lake, nearly as large as the Victoria Nyanza,
once covered the marshy plain where the Bahr el-Abiad

SOUTH AFRICA AND THE SOURCES OF THE NILE, BY ODOARDO LOPEZ. 1

unites with the Sobat, and with the Bahr el-Ghazal. Alluvial
deposits have filled up all but its deepest depression, which

1 Facsimile of the map published by KIRCHER in (Edipus JEgyptiacus,
vol. i. (Iconismus II.}, p. 53.

28 THE NILE AND EGYPT

is known as Birket Nu ; but, in ages preceding our era,
it must still have been vast enough to suggest to Egyptian
soldiers and boatmen the idea of an actual sea, opening
into the Indian Ocean. The mountains, whose outline was
vaguely seen far to southward on the further shores, doubt
less contained within them its mysterious source. There
the inundation was made ready, and there it began upon a
fixed day. The celestial Nile had its periodic rise and fall,
on which those of the earthly Nile depended. Every
year, towards the middle of June, Isis, mourning for Osiris,
let fall into it one of the tears which she shed over her
brother, and thereupon the river swelled and descended
upon earth. Isis has had no devotees for centuries, and
her very name is unknown to the descendants of her
worshippers ; but the tradition of her fertiliziug tears has
survived her memory. Even to this day, every one in
Egypt, Mussulman or Christian, knows that a divine drop
falls from heaven during the night between the 17th and
18th of June, and forthwith brings about the rise of the Nile.
Swollen by the rains which fall in February over the
region of the Great Lakes, the White Nile rushes north
ward, sweeping before it the stagnant sheets of water left
by the inundation of the previous year. On the left, the
Bahr el-Ghazal brings it the overflow of the ill-defined
basin stretching between Darfur and the Congo ; and the
Sobat pours in on the right a tribute from the rivers which
furrow the southern slopes of the Abyssinian mountains.
The first swell passes Khartum by the end of April, and
raises the water-level there by about a foot, then it slowly
makes its way through Nubia, and dies away in Egypt at

THE "GREEN" NILE 29

the beginning of June. Its waters, infected by half-putrid
organic matter from the equatorial swamps, are not com
pletely freed from it even in the course of this long journey,
but keep a greenish tint as far as the Delta. They are
said to be poisonous, and to give severe pains in the bladder
to any who may drink them. I am bound to say that
every June, for five years, I drank this green water from
the Nile itself, without taking any other precaution than
the usual one of filtering it through a porous jar. Neither
I, nor the many people living with me, ever felt the
slightest inconvenience from it. Happily, this Green Nile
does not last long, bat generally flows away in three or
four days, and is only the forerunner of the real flood.
The melting of the snows and the excessive spring rains
having suddenly swollen the torrents which rise in the
central plateau of Abyssinia, the Blue Nile, into which
they flow, rolls so impetuously towards the plain that,
when its waters reach Khartum in the middle of May, they
refuse to mingle with those of the White Nile, and do not
lose their peculiar colour before reaching the neighbour
hood of Abu Hamed, three hundred miles below. From
that time the height of the Nile increases rapidly day by
day. The river, constantly reinforced by floods following
one upon another from the Great Lakes and from Abys
sinia, rises in furious bounds, and would become a devas
tating torrent were its rage not checked by the Nubian
cataracts. Here six basins, one above another, in which
the water collects, check its course, and permit it to flow
thence only as a partially filtered and moderated stream.
It is signalled at Syene towards the 8th of June, at Cairo

30 THE NILE AND EGYPT

by the 17th to the 20th, and there its birth is officially
celebrated during the " Night of the Drop." Two days
later it reaches the Delta, just in time to save the country
from drought and sterility. Egypt, burnt up by the
Khamsin, a west wind blowing continuously for fifty days,
seems nothing more than an extension of the desert. The
trees are covered and choked by a layer of grey dust.
About the villages, meagre and laboriously watered patches
of vegetables struggle for life, while some show of green
still lingers along the canals and in hollows whence all
moisture has not yet evaporated. The plain lies panting
in the sun naked, dusty, and ashen scored with inter
secting cracks as far as eye can see. The Nile is only half
its usual width, and holds not more than a twentieth of the
volume of water which is borne down in October. It has
at first hard work to recover its former bed, and attains it
by such subtle gradations that the rise is scarcely noted.
It is, however, continually gaining ground ; here a sand
bank is covered, there an empty channel is filled, islets are
outlined where there was a continuous beach, a new stream
detaches itself and gains the old shore. The first contact
is disastrous to the banks ; their steep sides, disintegrated
and cracked by the heat, no longer offer any resistance to
the current, and fall with a crash, in lengths of a hundred
yards and more. As the successive floods grow stronger
and are more heavily charged with mud, the whole mass
of water becomes turbid and changes colour. In eight or
ten days it has turned from greyish blue to dark red, occa
sionally of so intense a colour as to look like newly shed
blood. The " Bed Nile " is not unwholesome like the

CO O

i _ )

a tc

O
O
O

THE "BRIDE OF THE NILE" 33

"Green Nile," and the suspended mud to which it owes
its suspicious appearance deprives the water of none of its
freshness and lightness. It reaches its full height towards
the 15th of July ; but the dykes which confine it, and
the barriers constructed across the mouths of canals, still
prevent it from overflowing. The Nile must be considered
high enough to submerge the land adequately before it is
set free. The ancient Egyptians measured its height by
cubits of twenty-one and a quarter inches. At fourteen
cubits, they pronounced it an excellent Nile ; below thir
teen, or above fifteen, it was accounted insufficient or
excessive, and in either case meant famine, and perhaps
pestilence at hand. To this day the natives watch its
advance with the same anxious eagerness ; and from the
3rd of July, public criers, walking the streets of Cairo,
announce each morning what progress it has made since
evening. More or less authentic traditions assert that
the prelude to the opening of the canals, in the time of
the Pharaohs, was the solemn casting to the waters of a
young girl decked as for her bridal the " Bride of the
Nile." Even after the Arab conquest, the irruption of
the river into the bosom of the land was still considered
as an actual marriage ; the contract was drawn up by a
cadi, and witnesses confirmed its consummation with the
most fantastic formalities of Oriental ceremonial. It is
generally between the 1st and 16th of July that it is
decided to break through the dykes. When that proceed
ing has been solemnly accomplished in state, the flood still
takes several days to fill the canals, and afterwards spreads
over the low lands, advancing little by little to the very
VOL. i. D

34 THE NILE AND EGYPT

edge of the desert. Egypt is then one sheet of turbid
water spreading between two lines of rock and sand, flecked
with green and black spots where there are towns or where
the ground rises, and divided into irregular compartments
by raised roads connecting the villages. In Nubia the
river attains its greatest height towards the end of August ;
at Cairo and in the Delta not until three weeks or a month
later. For about eight days it remains stationary, and then
begins to fall imperceptibly. Sometimes there is a new
freshet in October, and the river again increases in height.
But the rise is unsustained ; once more it falls as rapidly
as it rose, and by December the river has completely
retired to the limits of its bed. One after another, the
streams which fed it fail or dwindle. The Tacazze is lost ,
among the sands before rejoining it, and the Blue Nile,
well-nigh deprived of tributaries, is but scantily maintained
by Abyssinian snows. The White Nile is indebted to the
Great Lakes for the greater persistence of its waters, which
feed the river as far as the Mediterranean, and save the
valley from utter drought in winter. But, even with this
resource, the level of the water falls daily, and its volume
is diminished. Long-hidden sandbanks reappear, and are
again linked into continuous line. Islands expand by the
rise of shingly beaches, which gradually reconnect them
with each other and with the shore. Smaller branches
of the river cease to flow, and form a mere network of
stagnant pools and muddy ponds, which fast dry up. The
main channel itself is only intermittently navigable ; after
March boats run aground in it, and are forced to await the
return of the inundation for their release. From the middle

Assiout

SCANTINESS OF THE EGYPTIAN FLORA 35

of April to the middle of June, Egypt is only half alive,
awaiting the new Nile.

Those ruddy and heavily charged waters, rising and
retiring with almost mathematical regularity, bring and
leave the spoils of the countries they have traversed :
sand from Nubia, whitish clay from the regions of the
Lakes, ferruginous mud, and the various rock-formations
of Abyssinia. These materials are not uniformly dissemi
nated in the deposits ; their precipitation being regulated
both by their specific gravity and the velocity of the
current. Flattened stones and rounded pebbles are left
behind at the cataract between Syene and Keneh, while
coarser particles of sand are suspended in the under
currents and serve to raise the bed of the river, or are
carried out to sea and form the sandbanks which are slowly
rising at the Damietta and Rosetta mouths of the Nile.
The mud and finer particles rise towards the surface, and
are deposited upon the land after the opening of the dykes.
Soil which is entirely dependent on the deposit of a river,
and periodically invaded by it, necessarily maintains but
a scanty flora ; and though it is well known that, as
a general rule, a flora is rich in proportion to its distance
from the poles and its approach to the equator, it is also
admitted that Egypt offers an exception to this rule. At
the most, she has not more than a thousand species, while,
with equal area, England, for instance, possesses more than
fifteen hundred ; and of this thousand, the greater number
are not indigenous. Many of them have been brought
from Central Africa by the river : birds and winds have
continued the work, and man himself has contributed his

3(3

THE NILE AND EGYPT

part in making it more complete. From Asia he has at
different times brought wheat, barley, the olive, the apple,
the white or pink almond, and some twenty other species
now acclimatized on the banks of the Nile. Marsh plants
predominate in the Delta ; but the papyrus, and the three
varieties of blue, white, and pink lotus which once flourished

.SYCAMORES AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE MCPIRIYEH OF ASY^T. 1

there, being no longer cultivated, have now almost entirely
disappeared, and reverted to their original habitats. The
sycamore and the date-palm, both importations from
Central Africa, have better adapted themselves to their
exile, and are now fully naturalized on Egyptian soil. The

1 From a drawing by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger, taken
in 1881.

fcC

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1

32
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a a

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1 |
3 "^

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H m

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a
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i&gt;

THE DATE-PALM 39

sycamore grows in sand on the edge of the desert as
vigorously as in the midst of a well-watered country. Its
roots go deep in search of water, which infiltrates as far as
the gorges of the hills, and they absorb it freely, even
where drought seems to reign supreme. The heavy, squat,
gnarled trunk occasionally attains to colossal dimensions,
without ever growing very high. Its rounded masses of
compact foliage are so wide-spreading that a single tree
in the distance may give the impression of several grouped
together ; and its shade is dense, and impenetrable to the
sun. A striking contrast to the sycamore is presented by
the date-palm. Its round and slender stem rises uninter
ruptedly to a height of thirteen to sixteen yards ; its head
is crowned with a cluster of flexible leaves arranged in two
or three tiers, but so scanty, so pitilessly slit, that they fail
to keep off the light, and cast but a slight and unrefreshing
shadow. Few trees have so elegant an appearance, yet
few are so monotonously elegant. There are palm trees
to be seen on every hand ; isolated, clustered by twos and
threes at the mouths of ravines and about the villages,
planted in regular file along the banks of the river like
rows of columns, symmetrically arranged in plantations,
these are the invariable background against which other
trees are grouped, diversifying the landscape. The feathery
tamarisk * and the nabk, the moringa, the carob, or locust

1 The Egyptian name for the tamarisk, aaari, am , is identical with that
given to it in Semitic languages, both ancient and modern. This would sug
gest the question whether the tamarisk did not originally come from Asia.
In that case it must have been brought to Egypt from remote antiquity, for it
figures in the Pyramid texts. Bricks of Nile mud, and Memphite and Theban
tombs, have yielded us leaves, twigs, and even whole branches of the tamarisk.

40 THE NILE AND EGYPT

tree, several varieties of acacia and mimosa the sont, the
mimosa habbas, the white acacia, the Acacia Farnesiana
and the pomegranate tree, increase in number with the
distance from the Mediterranean. The dry air of the
valley is marvellously suited to them, but makes the tissue
of their foliage hard and fibrous, imparting an aerial aspect,
and such faded tints as are unknown to their growth in

ACACIAS AT THE ENTRANCE TO A GARDEN OUTSIDE EKHMIM. 1

other climates. The greater number of these trees do not
reproduce themselves spontaneously, and tend to disappear
when neglected. The Acacia Seyal, formerly abundant by
the banks of the river, is now almost entirely confined to
certain valleys of the Theban desert, along with a variety

1 From a drawing by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger, taken
in 1884.

FLORA AND FAUNA

of the kernelled doin-palm, of which a poetical description
has come down to us from the Ancient Egyptians. The
common dom-palm bifurcates at eight or ten yards from
the ground; these branches are subdivided, and terminate
in bunches of twenty to thirty palmate and fibrous leaves,
six to eight feet long. At the beginning of this century
the tree was common in Upper Egypt, but it is now
becoming scarce, and we are within measurable distance
of the time when its presence will be an exception north
of the first cataract. Willows are decreasing in number,
and the persea, one of the sacred trees of Ancient Egypt,
is now only to be found in gardens. None of the remaining
tree species are common enough to grow in large clusters ;
and Egypt, reduced to her lofty groves of date-palms,
presents the singular spectacle of a country where there is
no lack of trees, but an almost entire absence of shade.

If Egypt is a land of imported flora, it is also a land of
imported fauna, and all
its animal species have
been brought from
neighbouring countries.
Some of these as, for
example, the horse and
the camel were only
introduced at a compara
tively recent period, two
thousand to eighteen
hundred years before our
era ; the camel still later. The animals such as the long
and short-horned oxen, together with varieties of goats

SHK-ASS AXD HER FOAL.

THE NILE AND EGYPT

and dogs are, like the plants, generally of African origin,
and the ass of Egypt preserves an original purity of form
and a vigour to which the European donkey has long been
a stranger. The pig and the wild boar, the long-eared hare,
the hedgehog, the ichneumon, the moufflon, or maned sheep,
innumerable gazelles, including the Egyptian gazelles, and
antelopes with lyre-shaped horns, are as much West Asian
as African, like the carnivorae of all sizes, whose prey they

are the wild cat,
the wolf, the jackal,
the striped and
spotted hyenas, the
leopard, the pan
ther, the hunting
leopard, and the
lion. On the other
hand, most of the
serpents, large and
small, are indi
genous. Some are
harmless, like the
colubers ; others are
venomous, such as
the scytale, the
cerastes, the haje
viper, and the asp. The asp was worshipped by the
Egyptians under the name of urgeus. It occasionally
attains to a length of six and a half feet, and when

THE ITR.-EUS OF EGYPT. 1

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from pi. iii. of the REPTILES-SUPPLEMENT to
the Description de I JEgypte.

SERPENTS, THE UR^EUS 43

approached will erect its head and inflate its throat in
readiness for darting forward. The bite is fatal, like that of
the cerastes ; birds are literally struck down by the strength
of the poison, while the great mammals, and man himself,
almost invariably succumb to it after a longer or shorter
death-struggle. The ura?us is rarely found except in the
desert or in the fields ; the scorpion crawls everywhere, in
desert and city alike, and if its sting is not always followed
by death, it invariably causes terrible pain. Probably there
were once several kinds of gigantic serpent in Egypt, analo
gous to the pythons of equatorial Africa. They are still to
be seen in representations of funerary scenes, but not else
where ; for, like the elephant, the giraffe, and other animals
which now only thrive far south, they had disappeared at
the beginning of historic times. The hippopotamus long
maintained its ground before returning to those equatorial
regions whence it had been brought by the Nile. Common
under the first dynasties, but afterwards withdrawing to
the marshes of the Delta, it there continued to flourish up
to the thirteenth century of our era. The crocodile, which
came with it, has, like it also, been compelled to beat a
retreat. Lord of the river throughout all ancient times,
worshipped and protected in some provinces, execrated
and proscribed in others, it might still be seen in the
neighbourhood of Cairo towards the beginning of our
century. In 1840, it no longer passed beyond the neigh
bourhood of Gebel et-Tr, nor beyond that of Manfalut in
1849. Thirty years later, Mariette asserted that it was
steadily retreating before the guns of tourists, and the
disturbance which the regular passing of steamboats

THE NILE AND EGYPT

produced in the deep waters. To-day, no one knows of a
single crocodile existing below Aswan, but it continues to
infest Nubia, and the rocks of the first cataract : one of
them is occasionally carried down by the current into
Egypt, where it is speedily despatched by the fellahin, or
by some traveller in quest of adventure. The fertility of
the soil, and the vastness of the lakes and marshes,
attract many migratory birds ; passerinae and palmipedes
flock thither from all parts of the Mediterranean. Our
European swallows, our quails, our geese and wild ducks,

our herons to
mention only the
most familiar
come here to win
ter, sheltered from
cold and inclement
weather. Even
the non-migratory
birds are really,
for the most part,
strangers acclima
tized by long so
journ. Some of
them the turtle
dove, the magpie,
the kingfisher, the

THE IBIS OF EGYPT. 1

partridge, and the
sparrow may be classed with our European species, while

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from OISEAUX, pi. vii. 1, in the Commission

BIRDS AND FISHES

others betray their equatorial origin in the brightness of
their colours. White and black ibises, red flamiugo es,
pelicans, and cormorants enliven the waters of the river,
and animate the reedy swamps of the Delta in infinite
variety. They are to be seen ranged in long files upon
the sand-banks, fishing and basking in the sun ; suddenly
the flock is seized with panic, rises heavily, and settles
away further off. In hollows of the hills, eagle and falcon,
the merlin, the bald-headed vulture, the kestrel, the golden
sparrow-hawk, find inaccessible retreats, whence they

THE MOKMYRUS OXYRHYXCHUS.

descend upon the plains like so many pillagiog and well-
armed barons. A thousand little chattering birds come
at eventide to perch in flocks upon the frail boughs of
tamarisk and acacia. Many sea-fish make their way up
stream to swim in fresh waters shad, mullet, perch, and
the labrus and carry their excursions far into the Said.
Those species which are not Mediterranean came originally,
and still come annually, from the heart of Ethiopia with
the rise of the Nile, including two kinds of Alestes, the
soft-shelled turtle, the Bagrus docmac, and the mormyrus.
Some attain to a gigantic size, the Bagrus bayad and the

46 THE NILE AND EGYPT

turtle to about one yard, the latus to three and a half
yards in length, while others, such as the silurus (cat
fish), are noted for their electric properties. Nature
seems to have made the fahaka (the glohe-fish) in a fit
of playfulness. It is a long fish from beyond the cata
racts, and it is carried by the Nile the more easily on
account of the faculty it has of filling itself with air,
and inflating its body at will. When swelled out im
moderately, the fahaka overbalances, and drifts along
upside down, its belly to the wind, covered with spikes

AHAKA.

so that it looks like a hedgehog. During the inundation,
it floats with the current from one canal to another,
and is cast by the retreating waters upon the muddy
fields, where it becomes the prey of birds or of jackals,
or serves as a plaything for children.

Everything is dependent upon the river : the soil, the
produce of the soil, the species of animals it bears, the
birds which it feeds : and hence ifc was the Egyptians
placed the river among their gods. They personified it
as a man with regular features, and a vigorous and portly
body, such as befits the rich of high lineage. His breasts,
fully developed like those of a woman, though less firm,
hang heavily upon a wide bosom where the fat lies

THE NILE-GOD

in folds. A narrow girdle, whose ends fall free about the
thighs, supports his spacious abdomen, and his attire is
completed by sandals, and a close-fitting head-dress,
generally surmounted with a crown of water-plants. Some
times water springs from his breast ; sometimes he presents a
frog, or libation vases ; or holds a bundle of the cruces ansatce,
as symbols of life ; or bears a flat tray, full of offerings
bunches of flowers,
ears of corn, heaps of
fish, and geese tied
together by the feet.
The inscriptions call
him, " Hapi, father
of the gods, lord
of sustenance, who
maketh food to be,
and covereth the
two lands of Egypt
with his products ;
who giveth life,

banisheth want, and filleth the granaries to overflowing."
He is evolved into two personages, one being sometimes
coloured red, and the other blue. The former, who wears
a cluster of lotus-flowers upon his head, presides over the
Egypt of the south ; the latter has a bunch of papyrus for
his head-dress, and watches over the Delta. 2 Two goddesses,

TWO FISHERMEN CARRYING A LATUS WHICH THEY
HAVE JUST CAUGHT. 1

PETRIE, Medum,

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Medum painting,
pi. xii.

2 WILKINSON was the first who suggested that this god, when painted
red, was the Red (that is, the High) Nile, and, when painted blue, was to
be identified with the Low Nile. This opinion has since been generally

THE NILE AND EGYPT

corresponding to the two Hapis Mirit Qimait for Upper,
and Mirit Mlhit for Lower Egypt personified the banks
of the river. They are often represented as standing with
outstretched arms, as though begging for the water which
should make them fertile. The Nile-god had
his chapel in every province, and priests whose
right it was to bury all bodies of men or
beasts cast up by the river ; for the god had

THE GODDESS MIRIT, BEARING A BUNCH
OF PAPYRUS OX HER HEAD.

THE NILE-GOD. 1

claimed them, and to his servants they belonged. Several

adopted ; but to me it does not appear so incontrovertible as it has been con
sidered. Here, as in other cases, the difference in colour is only a means of
making the distinction between two personages obvious to sight.

1 Drawn b/ Faucher-Gudin, after a statue in the British Museum. The
dedication of this statue took place about 880 B.C. The giver was Sheshonqu,
high-priest of Amon in Thebes, afterwards King of Egypt under the name of
Sheshhonqu II., and he is represented as standing behind the leg of the god,

THE SHRINE AT BIGGEH

towns were dedicated to him : Hathapi, Nuit-Hapi, Nilo-
polis. It was told in the Theba id how the god dwelt
within a grotto, or shrine
(tophit), in the island of
Biggeh, whence he issued
at the inundation. This
tradition dates from a time
when the cataract was
believed to be at the end
of the world, and to bring
down the heavenly river
upon earth. Two yawn
ing gulfs (qoriti), at the
foot of the two granite
cliffs (monUi) between
which it ran, gave access
to this mysterious retreat.
A bas-relief from PhilaB
represents blocks of stone
piled one above another,

the Vulture of the SOUth THE SHRIXE OF THE NILE AT BIGGEH. 1

and the hawk of the north, each perched on a summit,

wearing a panther skin, with both arms upheld in adoration. The statue is
mutilated : the end of the nose, the beard, and part of the tray have
disappeared, but are restored in the illustration. The two little birds hang
ing alongside the geese, together with a bunch of ears of corn, are fat quails.
1 Reproduced from a bas-relief in the small temple of Philae, built by
Trajan and his successors. The window or door of this temple opened upon
Biggeh, and by comparing the drawing of the Egyptian artist with the view
from the end of the chamber, it is easy to recognize the original of this cliff
silhouette in the piled-up rocks of the island. By a mistake of the modern
copyist s, his drawing faces the wrong way.

VOL. I. E

50 THE NILE AND EGYPT

and the circular chamber wherein Hapi crouches con
cealed, clasping a libation vase in either hand. A single
coil of a serpent outlines the contour of this chamber,
and leaves a narrow passage between its overlapping
head and tail through which the rising waters may
overflow at the time appointed, bringing to Egypt " all
things good, and sweet, and pure," whereby gods and
men are fed. Towards the summer solstice, at the
very moment when the sacred water from the gulfs of
Syene reached Silsileh, the priests of the place, some
times the reigning sovereign, or one of his sons, sacrificed
a bull and geese, and then cast into the waters a sealed
roll of papyrus. This was a written order to do all that
might insure to Egypt the benefits of a normal inundation.
When Pharaoh himself deigned to officiate, the memory
of the event was preserved by a stela engraved upon the
rocks. Even in his absence, the festivals of the Nile
were among the most solemn and joyous of the land.
According to a tradition transmitted from age to age, the
prosperity or adversity of the year was dependent upon
the splendour and fervour with which they were celebrated.
Had the faithful shown the slightest lukewarmness, the
Nile might have refused to obey the command and failed
to spread freely over the surface of the country. Peasants
from a distance, each bringing his own provisions, ate their
meals together for days, and lived in a state of brutal
intoxication as long as this kind of fair lasted. On the
great day itself, the priests came forth in procession from the
sanctuary, bearing the statue of the god along the banks,
to the sound of instruments and the chanting of hymns.

FESTIVALS OF THE NILE

"I. Hail to thee, Hapi ! who appearest in the land
and coruest to give life to Egypt ; thou who dost hide
thy coming in darkness in this very day whereon thy
coming is sung, wave, which spreadest over the orchards
created hy Ka to give life to all them that are athirst-
who refusest to give drink unto the desert of the over
flow of the waters of heaven ; as soon as thou descendest,
Sibu, the earth-god, is enamoured of bread, Napri, the
god of grain, presents his offering, Phtah maketh every
workshop to prosper.

" II. Lord of the fish ! as soon as he passeth the

; ....

- i / I

. 8i

&lt;_ -

NILE-GODS FROM THE TEMPLE OF SETI I. AT ABVDOS BRINGING FOOD TO EVERY

NOME OF EGYPT. 1

cataract the birds no longer descend upon the fields ;-
creator of corn, maker of barley, he prolongeth the
existence of temples. Do his fingers cease from their
labours, or doth he suffer? then are all the millions of
beings in misery ; doth he wane in heaven ? then the
gods themselves, and all men perish ;

1 From a drawing by Faucher-Gudin, after a photograph by Be ato.

52 THE NILE AND EGYPT

"III. The cattle are driven mad, and all the world
both great and small, are in torment ! Bat if, on the
contrary, the prayers of men are heard at his rising and
(for them) he maketh himself Khnumu, when he ariseth,
then the earth shouts for joy, then are all bellies joyful,
each back is shaken with laughter, and every tooth
grindeth.

" IV. Bringing food, rich in sustenance, creator of all
good things, lord of all seeds of life, pleasant unto his
elect, if his friendship is secured he produceth fodder for
the cattle, and he provideth for the sacrifices of all the
gods, finer than any other is the incense which cometh
from him ; he taketh possession of the two lands and the
granaries are filled, the storehouses are prosperous, and
the goods of the poor are multiplied.

" V. He is at the service of all prayers to answer them,
withholding nothing. To make boats to be that is his
strength. Stones are not sculptured for him nor statues
whereon the double crown is placed ; he is unseen ; no
tribute is paid unto him and no offerings are brought unto
him, he is not charmed by words of mystery ; the place
of his dwelling is unknown, nor can his shrine be found by
virtue of magic writings ;

"VI. There is no house large enough for thee, nor
any who may penetrate within thy heart I Nevertheless,
the generations of thy children rejoice in thee for thou
dost rule as a king whose decrees are established for the
whole earth, who is manifest in presence of the people of
the South and of the North, by whom the tears are
washed from every eye, and who is lavish of his bounties.

HYMN TO THE NILE 53

" VII. Where sorrow was, there doth break forth joy
and every heart rejoiceth. Sovku, the crocodile, the
child of Nit, leaps for gladness ; l for the Nine gods who
accompany thee have ordered all things, the overflow
giveth drink unto the fields and maketh all men valiant ;
one man taketh to drink of the labour of another, without
charge being brought against him. 2

" IX. If thou dost enter in the midst of songs to go
forth in the midst of gladness, if they dance with joy
when thou cornest forth out of the unknown, it is that thy
heaviness is death and corruption. And when thou art
implored to give the water of the year, the people of the
Thebaid and of the North are seen side by side, each man
with the tools of his trade, none tarrieth behind his
neighbour ; of all those who clothed themselves, no man
clotheth himself (with festive garments) the children of
Thot, the god of riches, no longer adorn themselves with
jewels, nor the Nine gods, but they are in the night !-
As soon as thou hast answered by the rising, each one
anointeth himself with perfumes.

"X. Establisher of true riches, desire of men, here
are seductive words in order that thou mayest reply ; if
thou dost answer mankind by waves of the heavenly Ocean,

1 The goddess Nit, the heifer born from the midst of the primordial
waters, had two crocodiles as her children, which are sometimes represented
on the monuments as hanging from her bosom. Both the part played by
these animals, and the reason for connecting them with the goddess, are still
imperfectly understood.

2 This is an allusion to the quarrels and lawsuits resulting from the dis
tribution of the water in years when the Nile was poor or bad. If the inun
dation is abundant, disputes are at an end..

54 THE NILE AND EGYPT

Napri, the grain-god, presents his offering, all the gods

adore (thee), the birds no longer descend upon the hills ;
though that which thy hand formeth were of gold or in
the shape of a brick of silver, it is not lapis-lazuli that we

ea t } but wheat is of more worth than precious stones.

"XI. They have begun to sing unto thee upon the
harp, they sing unto thee keeping time with their hands,
and the generations of thy children rejoice in thee, and
they have filled thee with salutations of praise ; for it is the
god of Riches who adorneth the earth, who maketh barks
to prosper in the sight of man who rejoiceth the heart of
women with child who loveth the increase of the flocks.

XII. When thou art risen in the city of the Prince,

then is the rich man filled the small man (the poor)
disdaineth the lotus, all is solid and of good quality, all
herbage is for his children. Doth he forget to give food?
prosperity forsaketh the dwellings, and earth falleth
into a wasting sickness."

The word Nile is of uncertain origin. We have it from
the Greeks, and they took it from a people foreign to Egypt,
either from the Phoenicians, the Khlti, the Libyans, or from
people of Asia Minor. When the Egyptians themselves
did not care to treat their river as the god Hapi, they
called it the sea, or the great river. They had twenty
terms or more by which to designate the different phases
which it assumed according to the seasons, but they would
not have understood what was meant had one spoken to
them of the Nile. The name Egypt also is part of the
Hellenic tradition ; perhaps it was taken from the temple-
name of Memphis, Haikuphtah, which barbarian coast

Libyan Mountains

;

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A M ti /i,

t*V,v. ,17

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iy*M*i
few%

-i n

THEIR NAMES 55

tribes of the Mediterranean must long have had ringing in
their ears as that of the most important and wealthiest town
to be found upon the shores of their sea. The Egyptians
called themselves Bomitu, Botu, and their country Qlmit,
the black land. Whence came they ? How far off in time
are we to carry back the date of their arrival ? The oldest
monuments hitherto known scarcely transport us further
than six thousand years, yet they are of an art so fine, so
well determined in its main outlines, and reveal so in
geniously combined a system of administration, government,
and religion, that we infer a long past of accumulated
centuries behind them. It must always be difficult to
estimate exactly the length of time needful for a race as
gifted as were the Ancient Egyptians to rise from barbarism
into a high degree of culture. Nevertheless, I do not think
that we shall be misled in granting them forty or fifty
centuries wherein to bring so complicated an achievement
to a successful issue, and in placing their first appearance
at eight or ten thousand years before our era. Their
earliest horizon was a very limited one. Their gaze might
wander westward over the ravine-furrowed plains of the
Libyan desert without reaching that fabled land of Manu
where the sun set every evening ; but looking eastward
from the valley, they could see the peak of Bakhu, which
marked the limit of regions accessible to man.

Beyond these regions lay the beginnings of To-nutri,
the land of the gods, and the breezes passing over it were
laden with its perfumes, and sometimes wafted them to
mortals lost in the desert. 1 Northward, the world came

1 The perfumes and the odoriferous woods of the Divine Land were

56 THE NILE AND EGYPT

to an end towards the lagoons of the Delta, whose in
accessible islands were believed to be the sojourning-place
of souls after death. As regards the south, precise know
ledge of it scarcely went beyond the defiles of (rebel Sil-
sileh, where the last remains of the granite threshold had
perhaps not altogether disappeared. The district beyond
Gebel Silsileh, the province of Konusit, was still a foreign
and almost mythic country, directly connected with heaven
by means of the cataract. Long after the Egyptians had
broken through this restricted circle, the names of those
places which had as it were marked out their frontiers,
continued to be associated in their minds with the idea of
the four cardinal points. Bakhu and Manu were still the
most frequent expressions for the extreme East and West.
Nekhabit and Buto, the most populous towns in the neigh
bourhoods of G-ebel Silsileh and the ponds of the Delta,
were set over against each other to designate South and
North. It was within these narrow limits that Egyptian
civilization struck root and ripened, as in a closed vessel.
What were the people by whom it was developed, the
country whence they came, the races to which they be
longed, is to-day unknown. The majority would place
their cradle-land in Asia, 1 but cannot agree in determining

celebrated in Egypt. A traveller or hunter, crossing the desert, "could not
but be vividly impressed by suddenly becoming aware, in the very midst
of the desert, of the penetrating scent of the robul (Pulicharia undulata,
SCHWEINF.), which once followed us throughout a day and two nights, in
some places without our being able to distinguish whence it came ; as, for
instance, when we were crossing tracts of country without any traces of
vegetation whatever " (GOLENISCHEFF).

1 The greater number of contemporary Egyptologists, BRUGSCH, EBERS,

PROBABLE AFRICAN ORIGIN OP THE EGYPTIANS 57

the route which was followed in the emigration to Africa.
Some think that the people took the shortest road across
the Isthmus of Suez, others give them longer peregrinations
and a more complicated itinerary. They would have them
cross the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, and then the Abyssinian
mountains, and, spreading northward and keeping along
the Nile, finally settle in the Egypt of to-day. A more
minute examination compels us to recognize that the
hypothesis of an Asiatic origin, however attractive it may
seem, is somewhat difficult to maintain. The bulk of the
Egyptian population presents the characteristics of those
white races which have been found established from all
antiquity on the Mediterranean slope of the Libyan
continent ; this population is of African origin, and came
to Egypt from the West or South- West. In the valley,
perhaps, it may have met with a black race which it drove
back or destroyed ; and there, perhaps, too, it afterwards
received an accretion of Asiatic elements, introduced by
way of the isthmus and the marshes of the Delta. But
whatever may be the origin of the ancestors of the
Egyptians, they were scarcely settled upon the banks of
the Nile before the country conquered, and assimilated

LA.UTH, LIBBLEIN, have rallied to this opinion, in the train of E. DE ROUGE ;
but the most extreme position has been taken up by HOMMEL, the Assyrio-
logist, who is inclined to derive Egyptian civilization entirely from the
Babylonian. After having summarily announced this thesis in his Geschichte
Babyloniens und Assyriens, p. 12, et seq., he has set it forth at length in a
special treatise, Der Babylonische Ursprung der agyptischen Kultur, 1892,
wherein he endeavours to prove that the Heliopolitan myths, and hence the
whole Egyptian religion, are derived from the cults of Eridu, and would
make the name of the Egyptian city Onu, or Anu, identical with that of
Nun-Jci, Nun, which is borne by the Chaldeau.

58 THE NILE AND EGYPT

them to itself, as it has never ceased to do in the case of
strangers who have occupied it. At the time when their
history begins for us, all the inhabitants had long formed
but one people, with but one language.

This language seems to be connected with the Semitic
tongues by many of its roots. It forms its personal
pronouns, whether isolated or suffixed, in a similar way.
One of the tenses of the conjugation, and that the simplest
and most archaic, is formed with identical affixes. Without
insisting upon resemblances which are open to doubt, it
may be almost affirmed that most of the grammatical
processes used in Semitic languages are to be found in
a rudimentary condition in Egyptian. One would say that
the language of the people of Egypt and the languages of
the Semitic races, having once belonged to the same group,
had separated very early, at a time when the vocabulary
and the grammatical system of the group had not as yet
taken definite shape. Subject to different influences, the
two families would treat in diverse fashion the elements
common to both. The Semitic dialects continued to
develop for centuries, while the Egyptian language, although
earlier cultivated; stopped short in its growth. "If it is
obvious that there was an original connexion between the
language of Egypt and that of Asia, this connexion is
nevertheless sufficiently remote to leave to the Egyptian
race a distinct physiognomy." We recognize it in sculp
tured and painted portraits, as well as in thousands of
mummied bodies out of subterranean tombs. The highest
type of Egyptian was tall and slender, with a proud and
imperious air in the carriage of his head and in his whole

EGYPTIAN TYPES

bearing. He had wide and fall shoulders, well-marked and
vigorous pectoral muscles, muscular arms, a long, fine
hand, slightly developed hips, and sinewy legs. The detail
of the knee-joint and the muscles
of the calf are strongly marked
beneath the skin ; the long, thin,
and low- arched feet are flattened
out at the extremities owing to
the custom of going barefoot, i
The head is rather short, the
face oval, the forehead some
what retreating. The eyes are
wide and fully opened, the cheek
bones not too marked, the nose
fairly prominent, and either
straight or aquiline. The mouth
is long, the lips full, and lightly
ridged along their outline ; the
teeth small, even, well-set, and
remarkably sound ; the ears are
set high on the head. At birth
the skin is white, but darkens
in proportion to its exposure to
the sun. Men are generally
painted red in the pictures,

though, as a matter of fact, there must already have been
all the shades which we see among the present population,
from a most delicate, rose-tinted complexion to that of

1 Statue of Ranofir in the Gizeh Museum (V th dynasty), after a photo
graph by Emil Brugsch-Bcy.

THE NOBLE TYPE OF EGYPTIAN. 1

THE NILE AND EGYPT

a smoke-coloured bronze. Women, who were less exposed
to the sun, are generally painted yellow, the tint paler in
proportion as they rise in the social scale. The hair was
inclined to be wavy, and even to curl into little ringlets,

HEAD OF A THEBAN MUMMY.

AN EGYPTIAN OF THE ORDINARY TYPE. 1

HEAD OF A FELLAH OF UPPER EGYPT,

but without ever turning into the wool of the negro. The
beard was scanty, thick only upon the chin. Such was the
highest type ; the commoner was squat, dumpy, and heavy.

1 Statue of Usiri (VI th dynasty) in the Gizeh Museum. From a photo
graph by Emil Brugsoh-Bey.

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111

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EGYPTIAN TYPES 61

Chest and shoulders seem to be enlarged at the expense of
the pelvis and the hips, to such an extent as to make the
want of proportion between the upper and lower parts of
the body startling and ungraceful. The skull is long,
somewhat retreating, and slightly flattened on the top ;
the features are coarse, and as though carved in flesh by
great strokes of the blocking-out chisel. Small franated
eyes, a short nose, flanked by widely distended nostrils,
round cheeks, a square chin, thick, but not curling lips
this unattractive and ludicrous physiognomy, sometimes
animated by an expression of cunning which recalls the
shrewd face of an old French peasant, is often lighted up
by gleams of gentleness and of melancholy good-nature.
The external characteristics of these two principal types
in the ancient monuments, in all varieties of modifications,
may still be seen among the living. The profile copied
from a Theban mummy taken at hazard from a necropolis
of the XVIII th dynasty, and compared with the likeness of
a modern Luxor peasant, would almost pass for a family
portrait. Wandering Bisharin have inherited the type of
face of a great noble, the contemporary of Kheops ; and
any peasant woman of the Delta may bear upon her
shoulders the head of a twelfth-dynasty king. A citizen
of Cairo, gazing with wonder at the statues of Khafra or
of Seti I. in the Gizeh Museum, is himself, feature for
feature, the very image of those ancient Pharaohs, though
removed from them by fifty centuries.

Until quite recently nothing, or all but nothing, had been
discovered which could be attributed to the primitive races
of Egypt : even the flint weapons and implements which

THE NILE AND EGYPT

bad been found in various places could not be ascribed to
them with any degree of certainty, for the Egyptians con
tinued to use stone long after metal was known to them.
They made stone arrowheads, hammers, and knives, not
only in the time of the Pharaohs, but under the Romans,

A FELLAH WOMAN WITH THE FEATURES OF AN ANCIENT KING

and during the whole period of the Middle Ages, and the
manufacture of them has not yet entirely died out. 2 These

1 The face of the woman here given was taken separately, and was subse
quently attached to the figure of an Egyptian woman whom Naville had
photographed sitting beside a colossal head. The nose of the statue has

been restored.

2 An entire collection of flint tools axes, adzes, knives, and sickle
mostly with wooden handles, were found by Prof. Petrie in the ruins of Kahun,
at the entrance to the Fayum : these go back to the time of the twelfth dynasty,
more than three thousand years before our era. Mariette had previously
pointed out to the learned world the fact that a Coptic Bets, Salib of Abydos,
in charge of the excavations, shaved his head with a flint knife, according to

EARLY CIVILIZATION 63

objects, and the workshops where they were made, might
therefore be less ancient than the greater part of the in
scribed monuments. But if so far we had found no examples
of any work belonging to the first ages, we met in historic
times with certain customs which were out of harmony
with the general civilization of the period. A comparison
of these customs with analogous practices of barbarous
nations threw light upon the former, completed their mean
ing, and showed us at the same time the successive stages
through which the Egyptian people had to pass before
reaching their highest civilization. We knew, for example,
that even as late as the CaBsars, girls belonging to noble
families at Thebes were consecrated to the service of Amou,
and were thus licensed to a life of immorality, which, how
ever, did not prevent them from making rich marriages
when age obliged them to retire from office. Theban women
were not the only people in the world to whom such licence
was granted or imposed upon them by law ; wherever in a
civilized country we see a similar practice, we may recog
nize in it an ancient custom which in the course of centuries
has degenerated into a religious observance. The institu
tion of the women of Amon is a legacy from a time when the
practice of polyandry obtained, and marriage did not yet exist.
Age and maternity relieved them from this obligation, and
preserved them from those incestuous connections of which
we find examples in other races. A union of father and

the custom of his youth (1820-35). I knew the man, who died at over
eighty years of age, in 1887 ; he was still faithful to his flint implement,
while his sons and the whole population of El Kharbeh were using nothing
but steel razors. As his scalp was scraped nearly raw by the operation, he
used to cover his head with fresh leaves to cool the inflamed skin.

64 THE NILE AND EGYPT

daughter, however, was perhaps not wholly forbidden, 1 and
that of brother and sister seems to have been regarded as
perfectly right and natural; the words brother and sister
possessing in Egyptian love-songs the same significance as
lover and mistress with us. Paternity was necessarily
doubtful in a community of this kind, and hence the tie
between fathers and children was slight; there being no
family, in the sense in which we understand the word,
except as it centred around the mother. Maternal descent
was, therefore, the only one openly acknowledged, and the
affiliation of the child was indicated by the name of the
mother alone. When the woman ceased to belong to all,
and confined herself to one husband, the man reserved to
himself the privilege of taking as many wives as he wished,
or as he was able to keep, beginning with his own sisters.
All wives did not enjoy identical rights : those born of the
same parents as the man, or those of equal rank with
himself, preserved their independence. If the law pro
nounced him the master, nibu, to whom they owed obedience
and fidelity, they were mistresses of the house, niUt piril,
as well as wives, himitti, and the two words of the title
express their condition. Each of them occupied, in fact,
her own house, piru, which she had from her parents or
her husband, and of which she was absolute mistress, mbit.
She lived in it and performed in it without constraint all
a woman s duties ; feeding the fire, grinding the corn,

E. DB ROUGE held that Rarueses II. married at least two of his
daughters, Bint Anati and Honittui ; WIEDEMANN admits that Psammetichus
I. had in the same way taken to wife Nitocris, who had been born to him by
the Theban princess Shapenuapit. The Achsemenidan kings did the same :
Artaxerxes married two of his own daughters.

MARRIAGE 65

occupying herself in cooking and weaving, making clothing
and perfumes, nursing and teaching her children. Wnen
her husband visited her, he was a guest whom she received
on an equal footing. It appears that at the outset these
various wives were placed under the authority of an older
woman, whom they looked on as their mother, and who
defended their rights and interests against the master ; but
this custom gradually disappeared, and in historic times
we read of it as existing only in the families of the gods.
The female singers consecrated to Arnon and other deities,
owed obedience to several superiors, of whom the principal
(generally the widow of a king or high priest) was called
chief -superior of the ladies of the harem of Amon. Besides
these wives, there were concubines, slaves purchased or
born in the house, prisoners of war, Egyptians of inferior
class, who were the chattels of the man and of whom he
could dispose as he wished. All the children of one father
were legitimate, whether their mother were a wife or
merely a concubine, but they did not all enjoy the same
advantages ; those among them who were born of a brother
or sister united in legitimate marriage, took precedence of
those whose mother w r as a wife of inferior rank or a slave.
In the family thus constituted, the woman, to all appear
ances, played the principal part. Children recognized the
parental relationship in the mother alone. The husband
appears to have entered the house of his wives, rather than
the wives to have entered his, and this appearance of
inferiority was so marked that the Greeks were deceived by
it. They affirmed that the woman was supreme in Egypt ;
the man at the time of marriage promised obedience to her,

VOL. I. F

THE NILE AND EGYPT

and entered into a contract not to raise any objection to
her commands.

We had, therefore, good grounds for supposing that
the first Egyptians were semi-savages, like those still living
in Africa and America, having an analogous organization,
and similar weapons and tools. A few lived in the desert,
in the oasis of Libya, or in the deep valleys of the Eed
Land Doshirit, To Doshiru between the Nile and the
sea ; the poverty of the country fostering their native

NEGRO PRISONERS WEARING THE PANTHER S SKIN* AS A LOIN-CLOTH.

savagery. Others, settled on the Black Land, gradually
became civilized, and we have found of late considerable
remains of those of their generations who, if not anterior
to the times of written records, were at least contemporary
with the earliest kings of the first historical dynasty.
Their houses were like those of the fellahs of to-day, low
huts of wattle daubed with puddled clay, or of bricks dried
in the sun. They contained one room, either oblong or
square, the door being the only aperture. Those of the
richer class only were large enough to make it needful to

HOUSES, FURNITURE 67

support the roof by means of one or more trunks of trees,
which did duty for columns. Earthen pots, turned by
hand, flint knives and other implements, mats of reeds or
plaited straw, two flat stones for grinding corn, a few pieces
of wooden furniture, stools, and head-rests for use at night,
comprised all the contents. Their ordinary pottery is
heavy and almost devoid of ornament, but some of the
finer kinds have been moulded and baked in wickerwork
baskets, which have left a quaint trellis-like impression on
the surface of the clay. In many cases the vases are
bicolour, the body being of a fine smooth red, polished
with a stone, while the neck and base are of an intense
black, the surface of which is even more shining than that
of the red part. Sometimes they are ornamented with
patterns in white of flowers, palms, ostriches, gazelles,
boats with undulated or broken lines, or geometrical figures
of a very simple nature. More often the ground is coloured
a fine yellow, and the decoration has been traced in red
lines. Jars, saucers, double vases, flat plates, large cups,
supports for amphora?, trays raised on a foot in short,
every kind of form is found in use at that remote period.
The men went about nearly naked, except the nobles, who
wore a panther s skin, sometimes thrown over the shoulders,
sometimes drawn round the waist, and covering the lower
part of the body, the animal s tail touching the heels
behind, as we see later in several representations of the
negroes of the Upper Nile. They smeared their limbs with
grease or oil, and they tattooed their faces and bodies, at
least in part, but in later times this practice was retained
by the lower classes only. On the other hand, the custom

THE NILE AND EGYPT

of painting the face was never given up. To complete
their toilet, it was necessary to accentuate the arch of
the eyebrow with a line of kohl (antimony powder). A
similar black line surrounded and prolonged the oval of

NOTABLE WEARING THE LARGE CLOAK
OVER THE LEFT SHOULDER. 1

PRIEST WEARING THE PANTHER S
SKIN ACROSS THE BREAST. 2

the eye to the middle of the temple, a layer of green
coloured the under lid, and ochre and carmine enlivened

1 Wooden statue in the Gizeh Museum (IV th dynasty), drawn by Faucher-
Gudin, from a photograph by Bechard.

2 Statue of the second prophet of Amon, Aa-nen, in the Turin Museum
(XVIII th dynasty).

COSTUME 69

the tints of the cheeks and lips. The hair, plaited, curled,
oiled, and plastered with grease, formed an erection which
was as complicated in the case of the man as in that of
the woman. Should the hair be too short, a black or blue
wig, dressed with much skill, was substituted for it ; ostrich
feathers waved on the heads of warriors, and a large lock,
flattened behind the right ear, distinguished the military
or religious chiefs from their subordinates. When the art
of weaving became common, a belt and loin-cloth of white
linen replaced the leathern garment. Fastened round the
waist, but so low as to leave the navel uncovered, the
loin-cloth frequently reached to the knee ; the hinder part
was frequently drawn between the legs and attached in
front to the belt, thus forming a kind of drawers. Tails of
animals and wild beast s skin were henceforth only the
insignia of authority with which priests and princes adorned
themselves on great days and at religious ceremonies.
The skin was sometimes carelessly thrown over the left
shoulder and swayed with the movement of the body ;
sometimes it was carefully adjusted over one shoulder and
under the other, so as to bring the curve of the chest into
prominence. The head of the animal, skilfully prepared
and enlivened by large eyes of enamel, rested on the
shoulder or fell just below the waist of the wearer ; the
paws, with the claws attached, hung down over the thighs ;
the spots of the skin were manipulated so as to form five-
pointed stars. On going out-of-doors, a large wrap was
thrown over all ; this covering was either smooth or hairy,
similar to that in which the Nubians and Abyssinians of
the present day envelop themselves. It could be draped

THE NILE AND EGYPT

in various ways ; transversely over the left shoulder like
the fringed shawl of the Chaldeans, or hanging straight
from both shoulders like a mantle. 2 In fact, it did duty
as a cloak, sheltering the wearer from the sun or from the
rain, from the heat or from the cold. They never sought

to transform it into a luxurious
garment of state, as was the case in
later times with the Eoman toga,
whose amplitude secured a cer
tain dignity of carriage, and
whose folds, carefully adjusted
beforehand, fell around the
body with studied grace.
The Egyptian mantle,
when not required, was
thrown aside and folded
up. The material being
fine and soft, it occupied
but a small space, and
was reduced to a long
thin roll ; the ends

A DIGNITARY WRAPPED IN HIS LARGE CLOAK. 1

being then fastened to-

1 Statue of Klriti in the Gizeh Museum (XII th and XIII th dynasties),
drawn by Faucher-Gudin.

2 This costume, to which Egyptologists have not given sufficient attention,
is frequently represented on the monuments. Besides the two statues
reproduced above, I may cite those of Uahibri and of Thoth-nofir in the
Louvre, and the Lady Nofrifc in the Gizeh Museum. Thothotpu in his
tomb wears this mantle. Khnumhotpu and several of his workmen ^are
represented in it at Beni-Hasan, as also one of the princes of Elephantine in
the recently discovered tombs, besides many Egyptians of all classes in the
tombs of Thebes (a good example is in the tomb of Harmhabi). The

LIBRARY

COSTUME 71

gether, it was slung over the shoulder and round the body
like a cavalry cloak. 1 Travellers, shepherds, all those whose
occupations called them to the fields, carried it as a
bundle at the ends of their sticks ; once arrived at the
scene of their work, they deposited it in a corner with
their provisions until they required it. The women were
at first contented with a loin-cloth like that of the men ;
it was enlarged and lengthened till it reached the ankle
below and the bosom above, and became a tightly fitting
garment, with two bands over the shoulders, like braces, to
keep it in place. The feet were not always covered ; on
certain occasions, however, sandals of coarse leather, plaited

reason why it does not figure more often is, in the first place, that the
Egyptian artists experienced actual difficulty in representing the folds of
its drapery, although these were simple compared with the complicated
arrangement of the Roman toga ; finally, the wall-paintings mostly portray
either interior scenes, or agricultural labour, or the work of various trades,
or episodes of war, or religious ceremonies, in all of which the mantle plays
no part. Every Egyptian peasant, however, possessed his own, and it was
in constant use in his daily life.

1 Many draughtsmen, ignorant of what they had to represent, have made
incorrect copies of the manner in which this cloak was worn ; but examples
of it are numerous, although until now attention has not been called to them.
The following are a few instances taken at random of the way in which it
was used : Pepi I., fighting against the nomads of Sinai, has the cloak, but
with the two ends passed through the belt of his loin-cloth ; at Zawyet el-
Maiyitin, Khunas, killing birds with the boomerang from his boat, wears it,
but simply thrown over the left shoulder, with the two extremities hanging
free. Khnumhotpu at Beni-Hasan, the Khrihabi, the overseers, or the
peasants, all have it rolled and slung round them ; the Prince of el-Bersheh
wears it like a mantle in folds over the two shoulders. If it is objected
that the material could not be reduced to such small dimensions as those
represented in these drawings of what I believe to be the Egyptian, cloak, I
may cite our cavalry capes, when rolled and slung, as an instance of what
good packing will do in reducing volume.

THE NILE AND EGYPT

straw, split reed, or even painted wood, adorned those
shapely Egyptian feet, which, to suit our taste, should be

a little shorter. Both men
and women loved ornaments,
and covered their necks,
breasts, arms, wrists, and
ankles with many rows of
necklaces and bracelets.
The bracelets were made of
elephant ivory, mother-of-
pearl, or even flint, very
cleverly perforated. The
necklaces were composed of
strings of pierced shells, 2
interspersed with seeds and
little pebbles, either spark
ling or of unusual shapes. 3
Subsequently imitations in
terra-cotta replaced the
natural shells, and precious
stones were substituted
for pebbles, as were
also beads of enamel,

COSTUME OF EGYPTIAN WOMAN, SPINNING. 1

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the spinning- worn en at the Paris
Exhibition of 1889. It was restored from the paintings in the tomb of
Khnumhotpu at Beni-Hasan.

2 The burying-places of Abydos, especially the most ancient, have
furnished us with millions of shells, pierced and threaded as necklaces ; they
all belong to the species of cowries used as money in Africa at the present day.

3 Necklaces of seeds have been found in the tombs of Abydos, Thebes,
and Gebelen. Of these Schweinfurth has identified, among others, the

ORNAMENTS

either round, pear-shaped, or cylindrical : the necklaces
were terminated and a uniform distance maintained be
tween the rows of beads, by several slips of wood, bone,
ivory, porcelain, or terra-cotta, pierced with holes, through
which ran the threads. Weapons, at least among the
nobility, were an indispensable part of costume. Most of

ifAS WEAKIXG WIG AND NECKLACES. 1

them were for hand-to-hand fighting : sticks, clubs, lances
furnished with a sharpened bone or stone point, axes and

Cassia absus, L., "a weed of the Soudan whose seeds are sold in the drug
bazaar at Cairo and Alexandria under the name of shishm, as a remedy, which
is in great request among the natives, for ophthalmia." For the necklaces
of pebbles, cf. MASPERO, Guide du visiteur, pp. 270, 271, No. 4129. A con
siderable number of these pebbles, particularly those of strange shape, or
presenting a curious combination of colours, must have been regarded as
amulets or fetishes by their Egyptian owners ; analogous cases, among other
peoples, have been pointed out by E. B. TYLOK, Primitive Culture, vol. ii.
p. 189.

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a portrait of Pharaoh Seti I. of the
XIX th dynasty : the lower part of the necklace has been completed.

THE NILE AND EGYPT

daggers of flint, 1 sabres and clubs of bone or wood variously
shaped, pointed or rounded at the end, with blunt or sharp
blades, inoffensive enough to look at, but, wielded by a

vigorous hand, sufficient
to break an arm, crush in
the ribs, or smash a skull
with all desirable pre
cision. 3 The plain or triple
curved bow was the favour
ite weapon for attack at
a distance, 4 but in addi
tion to this there were
the sling, the javelin, and
a missile almost forgotten
nowadays, the boomerang ;
we have no proof, however,
that the Egyptianshandled

THE BOOMERANG AND FIGHTING BOW. 2 tllO bOOmei ang & Wltll the

1 In several museums, notably at Ley den, we find Egyptian axes of stone,
particularly of serpentine, both rough and polished.

2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a painting in the tomb of Khnumhotpu
at Beni-Hasan.

3 In primitive times the bone of an animal served as a club. This is
proved by the shape of the object held in the hand in the sign v : the
hieroglyph ^, v &lt;, which is the determinative in writing for all ideas .of
violence or brute force, comes down to us from a time when the principal
weapon was the club, or a bone serving as a club.

4 For the two principal shapes of the bow, see LEPSIUS, Der Bogen in dcr
Eieroglypliik (Zeitschrift, 1872, pp. 79-88). From the earliest times the sign
^Jfe portrays the soldier equipped with the bow and bundle of arrows ; the
quiver was of Asiatic origin, and was not adopted until much later, In the
contemporary texts of the first dynasties, the idea of weapons is conveyed by
the bow, arrow, and club or axe.

5 The boomerang is still used by certain tribes of the Nile valley. It is

ARMS OP WOOD AND METAL 75

skill of the Australians, or that they knew how to throw
it so as to bring it back to its point of departure. 1 Such
was approximately the most ancient equipment as far as
we can ascertain ; but at a very early date copper and
iron were known in Egypt. 2 Long before historic times,
the majority of the weapons in wood were replaced by

VOTIVE AXE OF TIIOTIIMES III. 3

those of metal, daggers, sabres, hatchets, which pre
served, however, the shape of the old wooden instru
ments. Those wooden weapons which were retained, were

portrayed in the most ancient tombs, and every museum possesses examples,
varying in shape. Besides the ordinary boomerang, the Egyptians used one
which ended in a knob, and another of semicircular shape : this latter, re
produced in miniature in cornelian or in red jasper, served as an amulet, and
was placed on the mummy to furnish the deceased in the other world with a
fighting or hunting weapon.

1 The Australian boomerang is much larger than the Egyptian one ; it is
about a yard in length, two inches in width, and three sixteenths of an inch
in thickness. For the manner of handling it, and what can be done with it,
see LUBBOCK, Prehistoric Man, pp. 402, 403.

2 Metals were introduced into Egypt in very ancient times, since the
class of blacksmiths is associated with the worship of Horus of Edfu, and
appears in the account of the mythical wars of that God. The earliest tools
we possess, in copper or bronze, date from, the IV th dynasty : pieces of iron
have been found from time to time in the masonry of the Great Pyramid.
Mons Montelius has again and again contested the authenticity of these
discoveries, and he thinks that iron was not known in Egypt till a much
later period.

3 The blade is of bronze, and is attached to the wooden handle by inter
lacing thongs of leather (Gizeh Museum). Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from
a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.

THE NILE AND EGYPT

used for hunting, or were only brought out on solemn
occasions when tradition had to be respected. The war-
baton became the commander s wand of authority, and at

last degenerated into the walking-
stick of the rich or noble. The club
at length represented merely the
rank of a chieftain, 1 while the crook
and the wooden-handled mace, with
its head of ivory, diorite, granite,
or white stone, the favourite weapons
of princes, continued to the last the
most revered insignia of royalty. 2

Life was passed in comparative
ease and pleasure. Of the ponds
left in the open country by the river

^ ltS faU S0m6 ^^ U P m01 e ^

less quickly during the winter,
leaving on the soil an immense quantity of fish, the
possession of w r hich birds and wild beasts disputed with

1 The wooden club most commonly represented 1, is the usual insignia
of a nobleman. Several kinds of clubs, somewhat difficult for us moderns
to distinguish, yet bearing different names, formed a part of funereal
furniture.

2 The crook *? is the sceptre of a prince, a Pharaoh, or a god ; the white

mace t has still the value apparently of a weapon in the hands of the king
who brandishes it over a group of prisoners or over an ox which he is
sacrificing to a divinity. Most museums possess specimens of the stone heads
of these maces, but until lately their use was not known. I had several
placed in the Boulak Museum. It already possessed a model of one entirely
of wood.

3 Bas-relief in the temple of Luxor, from a photograph taken by Insinger
in 1886.

KING HOLDING THE BATON, THE

WHITE MACE AND THE CLUB. 3

FISHING

roan. 1 Other pools, however, remained till the returning
inundation, as so many vivaria in which the fish were

FISHING IX THE MARSHES : TWO FISH SPE.VRED AT ONE STROKE OF THE HARPOON. 2

preserved for dwellers on the banks. Fishing with the

FISHING IN THE RIVER : LIFTING A TRAP. 3

1 Of. the description of these pools given by Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire in
speaking of the fakaka. Even at the present day the jackals come down
from the mountains in the night, and regale themselves with the fish left on
the ground by the gradual drying up of these ponds.

2 Isolated figure from a great fishing scene in the tomb of Khnumhotpu
at Beni-Hasan ; drawn by Faucher-Gudin after ROSELLINI.

3 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from squeezes from the tomb of Ti.

THE NILE AND EGYPT

harpoon, made either of stone or of metal, with the line,
with a net or with traps, were all methods of fishing
known and used by the Egyptians from early times.
Where the ponds failed, the neighbouring Nile furnished
them with inexhaustible supplies. Standing in light canoes,
or rather supported by a plank on bundles of reeds bound

HUNTING IN THE MAKSHES : ENCOUNTERING AND SPEARING A HIPPOPOTAMUS. 1

together, they ventured into mid-stream, in spite of the
danger arising from the ever-present hippopotamus ; or they
penetrated up the canals amid a thicket of aquatic plants,
to bring down with the boomerang the birds which found
covert there. The fowl and fish which could not be eaten

1 Tomb of Ti. Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from DUMICHEN, Resultate,
vol. ii. pi. x.

HUNTING

fresh, were dried, salted, or smoked, and kept for a rainy
day. Like the river, the desert had its perils and its
resources. Only too frequently, the lion, the leopard, the

HUNTING IX THE DESERT ; BULL, LION, AND ORYX PIERCED WITH ARROWS. 1

panther, and other large felidse were met with there. The
nohles, like the Pharaohs of later times, deemed it as

PACK FROM THE TOMB OF PTAIIHOTPOU. 2

their privilege or duty to stalk and destroy these animals,
pursuing them even to their dens. The common people

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a painting by Beni-Hasan, LEPSIUS,
DenJim., ii. 136.

2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudiii, from a bas-relief of Ptahhotpu. The dogs
on the upper level are of hyenoid type, those on the lower are Abyssinian
greyhounds.

THE NILE AND EGYPT

preferred attacking the gazelle, the oryx, the mouflon
sheep, the ibex, the wild ox, and the ostrich, but did not
disdain more humble game, such as the porcupine and
long-eared hare : nondescript packs, in which the jackal
and the hyena ran side by side with the wolf-dog and the
lithe Abyssinian greyhound, scented and retrieved for their
master the prey which he had pierced with his arrows.
At times a hunter, returning with the dead body of the
mother, would be followed by one of her young ; or a
gazelle, but slightly wounded, would be taken to the village
and healed of its hurt. Such animals,
by daily contact with man, were gradu
ally tamed, and
formed about his
dwelling a motley
flock, kept partly
for his pleasure
and mostly for

his profit, and be
coming in case of CATCHING ANIMALS WITH THE BOLA.

necessity a ready stock of provisions. 2 Efforts were therefore
made to enlarge this flock, and the wish to procure animals
without seriously injuring them, caused the Egyptians to
use the net for birds and the lasso and the bola for

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief of Ptahhotpu. Above are
seen two porcupines, the foremost of which, emerging from his hole, has
seized a grasshopper.

2 In the same way, before the advent of Europeans, the half-civilized
tribes of North America used to keep about their huts whole flocks of
different animals, which were tame, but not domesticated.

THE LASSO AND THE BOLA 81

quadrupeds, 1 weapons less brutal than the arrow and the
javelin. The lola was made by them of a single rounded
stone, attached to a strap about five yards in length. The
stone once thrown, the cord twisted round the legs, muzzle,
or neck of the animal pursued, and by the attachment thus
made the pursuer, using all his strength, was enabled to
bring the beast down half strangled. The lasso has no
stone attached to it, but a noose prepared beforehand, and
the skill of the hunter consists in throwing it round the
neck of his victim while running. They caught indif
ferently, without distinction of size or kind, all that chance
brought within their reach. The daily chase kept up
these half-tamed flocks of gazelles, wild goats, water-bucks,
stocks, and ostriches, and their numbers are reckoned by
hundreds on the monuments of the ancient empire. 2

Hunting with the bold is constantly represented in the paintings both
of the Memphite and Theban periods. Wilkinson has confounded it with
lasso-hunting, and his mistake has been reproduced by other Egyptologists.
Lasso-hunting is seen in LEPSIUS, Denim., ii. 96, in DUMICHEN, Eesultate,
vol. i. pi. viii., and particularly in the numerous sacrificial scenes where the
king is supposed to be capturing the bull of the north or south, previous to
offering it to the god.

! As the tombs of the ancient empire show us numerous flocks of
gazelles, antelopes, and storks, feeding under the care of shepherds, Fr.
Lenormant conclude^ that the Egyptians of early times had succeeded in
domesticating some species, nowadays rebels to restraint. It is my belief
that the animals represented were tamed, but not domesticated, and were
the result of great hunting expeditions in the desert. The facts which
Lenormant brought forward to support his theory may be used against him.
For instance, the fawn of the gazelle nourished by its mother does not prove
that it was bred in captivity; the gazelle may have been caught before
calving, or just after the birth of its young. The fashion of keeping flocks of
animals taken from the desert died out between the XII th and XVIIP 1
dynasties. At the time of the new empire, they had only one or two solitary

VOL. I. G

THE NILE AND EGYPT

Experience alone taught the hunter to distinguish between
those species from which he could draw profit, and others
whose wildness made them impossible to domesticate. The
subjection of the most useful kinds had not been finished
when the historic period opened. The ass, the sheep, and
the goat were already domesticated, but the pig was still

out in the marshes in a
semi-wild state, under the
care of special herdsmen, 1
and the religious rites pre
served the remembrance
of the times in which the
ox was so little tamed,
that in order to capture

A BWISBHERD AND HIS PIGS.* ^^ grazing the am ma l S

needed for sacrifice or for slaughter, it was necessary to use
the lasso. 3

animals as pets for women or children, the mummies of which were some
times buried by the side of their mistresses.

1 The hatred of the Egyptians for the pig (HERODOTUS, ii. 47) is attri
buted to mythological motives. LIPPEET thinks this antipathy did not exist
in Egypt in primitive times. At the outset the pig would have been the
principal food of the. people; then, like the dog in other regions, it must
have been replaced at the table by animals of a higher order gazelles, sheep,
goats, oxen and would have thus fallen into contempt. To the excellent
reasons given by Lippert could be added others drawn from the study of the
Egyptian myths, to prove that the pig has often been highly esteemed.
Thus, Isis is represented, down to late times, under the form of a sow, and a
sow, whether followed or not by her young is one of the amulets placed in
the tomb with the deceased, to secure for him the protection of the
goddess.

2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a painting in a Theban tomb of the
XVIII th dynasty.

3 MARIETTE, Abydos (vol. i. pi. 48 &, 53). To prevent the animal from

PLANTS USED FOR FOOD 83

Europeans are astonished to meet nowadays whole
peoples who make use of herbs and plants whose flavour
and properties are nauseating to us : these are mostly
so many legacies from a remote past ; for example, castor-
oil, with which the Berbers rub their limbs, and with which
the fellahin of the Sai d flavour their bread and vegetables,
was preferred before all others by the Egyptians of the
Pharaonic age for anointing the body and for culinary use. 1
They had begun by eating indiscriminately every kind of
fruit which the country produced. Many of these, when
their therapeutic virtues had been learned by experience,
were gradually banished as articles of food, and their use
restricted to medicine ; others fell into disuse, and only
reappeared at sacrifices, or at funeral feasts ; several
varieties continue to be eaten to the present time the
acid fruits of the nabeca and of the carob tree, the astrin
gent figs of the sycamore, the insipid pulp of the dom-palm,
besides those which are pleasant to our Western palates,
such as the common fig and the date. The vine flourished,
at least in Middle and Lower Egypt ; from time imme
morial the art of making wine from it was known, and even
the most ancient monuments enumerate half a dozen
famous brands, red or white. 2 Vetches, lupins, beans,

evading the lasso and escaping during the sacrifice, its right hind foot was
fastened to its left horn.

I have often been obliged, from politeness, when dining with the native
agents appointed by the European powers at Port Said, to eat salads and
mayonnaise sauces flavoured with castor-oil ; the taste was not so disagree
able as might be at first imagined.

The four kinds of canonical wine, brought respectively from the north,
south, east, and west of the country, formed part of the official repast and of
the wine-cellar of the deceased from remote antiquity.

84 THE NILE AND EGYPT

chick-peas, lentils, onions, fenugreek, 1 the bamia, 2 the
meloukhia, 3 the aruin colocasia, all grew wild in the fields,

THE EGYPTIAN LOTUS. 4

1 All these species have been found in the tombs and identified by savants
in archaeological botany Kunth, Unger, Schweinfurth (LORET, La Flore
Pharaonique, pp. 17, 40, 42, 43, Nos. 33, 97, 102, 104, 105, 106). ^

2 The bamia, Hibiscus esculentus, L., is a plant of the family of the
Malvaceae, having a fruit of five divisions, covered with prickly hairs, and
containing round, white, soft seeds, slightly sweet, but astringent in taste,
and very mucilaginous. It figures on the monuments of Pharaonic times.

3 The meloukhia, Corchorus Olitorius, L., is a plant belonging to the
Tilliaceje, which is chopped up and cooked much the same as endive is with
us, but which few Europeans can eat with pleasure, owing to the mucilage
it contains. Theophrastus says it was celebrated for its bitterness ; it was
used as food, however, in the Greek town of Alexandria.

* Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from the Description de Vfigypte, HISTOIEE
NATURELLE, pi. 61.

GRAIN AND FRUITS 85

and the river itself supplied its quota of nourishing plants.
Two of the species of lotus which grew in the Nile, the
white and the blue, have seed-vessels similar to those of
the poppy : the capsules contain small grains of the size
of millet-seed. The fruit of the pink lotus " grows on a
different stalk from that of the flower, and springs directly
from the root; it resembles a honeycomb in form," or, to
take a more prosaic simile, the rose of a watering-pot. The
upper part has twenty or thirty cavities, "each containing
a seed as big as an olive stone, and pleasant to eat either
fresh or dried." This is what the ancients called the bean
of Egypt. "The yearly shoots of the papyrus are also
gathered. After pulling them up in the marshes, the points
are cut off and rejected, the part remaining being about a
cubit in length. It is eaten as a delicacy and is sold in the
markets, but those who are fastidious partake of it only
after baking." Twenty different kinds of grain and fruits,
prepared by crushing between two stones, are kneaded and
baked to furnish cakes or bread ; these are often mentioned
in the texts as cakes of nabeca, date cakes, and cakes of
figs. Lily loaves, made from the roots and seeds of the
lotus, were the delight of the gourmand, and appear on the
tables of the kings of the XIX th dynasty ; l bread and cakes
made of cereals formed the habitual food of the people.
Durrah is of African origin ; it is the " grain of the South "

1 Tin, which is the most ancient word for bread, appears in early times
to have been used for every kind of paste, whether made with fruits or
grain ; the more modern word nqii applies specially to bread made from
cereals. The lily loaves are mentioned in the Papyrus Anastasi, No. 4, p.
14. 1. 1.

THE NILE AND EGYPT

THE EGYl TIAN HOE. 2

of the inscriptions. On the other hand, it is supposed that
wheat and six-rowed barley came from the region of the
Euphrates. Egypt was among the first to procure and

cultivate them. 1 The soil there
is so kind to man, that in
many places no agricultural
toil is required. As soon as
the water of the Nile retires,
the ground is sown without
previous preparation, and the
grain, falling straight into the
mud, grows as vigorously as
in the best-ploughed furrows.
Where the earth is hard it is
necessary to break it up, but the extreme simplicity of the
instruments with which this was done shows what a feeble
resistance it offered. For a long time the hoe sufficed.
It was composed either of a large stone tied to a wooden
handle, or was made of two pieces of wood of unequal
length, united at one of their extremities, and held together
towards the middle by a slack cord : the plough, when first
invented was but a slightly enlarged hoe, drawn by oxen.
The cultivation of cereals, once established on the banks of
the Nile, developed, from earliest times, to such a degree as
to supplant all else : hunting, fishing, the rearing of cattle,

1 The position which wheat and barley occupy in the lists of offerings,
proves the antiquity of their existence in Egypt. Mariette found specimens
of barley in the tombs of the Ancient Empire at Saqqarah.

2 Bas-relief from the tomb of Ti ; drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a
photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.

THE HOE AND THE PLOUGH

occupied but a secondary place compared with agriculture,
and Egypt became, that which she still remains, a vast
granary of wheat.

The part of the valley first cultivated was from G-ebel
Silsileh to the apex of the Delta. 1 Between the Libyan
and Arabian ranges it presents a slightly convex surface,
furrowed lengthways by a depression, in the bottom of
which the Nile is gathered and enclosed when the inunda-

PLOUGHINO. 2

tion is over. In the summer, as soon as the river had risen
higher than the top of its banks, the water rushed by the
force of gravity towards the lower lands, hollowing in its
course long channels, some of which never completely dried

1 This was the tradition of all the ancients. Herodotus related that,
according to the Egyptians, the whole of Egypt, with the exception of the
Theban nome, was a vast swamp previous to the time of Menes. Aristotle
adds that the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, and the area now occupied by
the Delta, formed one sea. Cf. pp. 3-5 of this volume, on the formation of
the Delta.

2 Bas-relief from the tomb of Ti ; drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a
photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.

88 THE NILE AND EGYPT

up, even when the Nile reached its lowest level. 1 Cultiva
tion was easy in the neighbourhood of these natural reser
voirs, but everywhere else the movements of the river were
rather injurious than advantageous to man. The inundation
scarcely ever covered the higher ground in the valley,
which therefore remained unproductive; it flowed rapidly
over the lands of medium elevation, and moved so sluggishly
in the hollows that they became weedy and stagnant pools. 2
In any year the portion not watered by the river was
invaded by the sand : from the lush vegetation of a hot
country, there was but one step to absolute aridity. At
the present day an ingeniously established system of irriga
tion allows the agriculturist to direct and distribute the
overflow according to his needs. From Gebel Aiu to the
sea, the Nile and its principal branches are bordered by
long dykes, which closely follow the windings of the river
and furnish sufficiently stable embankments. Numerous
canals lead off to right and left, directed more or less
obliquely towards the confines of the valley ; they are
divided at intervals by fresh dykes, starting at the one side
from the river, and ending on the other either at the Bahr
Yusuf or at the rising of the desert. Some of these dykes
protect one district only, and consist merely of a "bank of
earth ; others command a large extent of territory, and a
breach in them would entail the ruin of an entire province.
These latter are sometimes like real ramparts, made of

The whole description of the damage which can be done by the Nile in
places where the inundation is not regulated, is borrowed from LINANT DE
BELLEFONDS, Memoire sur les principaux travaux d utilite publique, p. 3.

2 This physical configuration of the country explains the existence at a
very early date of those gigantic serpents which I have already mentioned.

An Egyptian Sakia (Well)

Showing method of procuring water for irrigation

DYKES, BASINS, IRRIGATION 89

crude brick carefully cemented ; a few, as at Qosheish,
have a core of hewn stones, which later generations have
covered with masses of brickwork, and strengthened with
constantly renewed buttresses of earth. They wind across
the plain with many unexpected and apparently aimless
turns ; on closer examination, however, it may be seen that
this irregularity is not to be attributed to ignorance or
caprice. Experience had taught the Egyptians the art of
picking out, upon the almost imperceptible relief of the soil,
the easiest lines to use against the inundation : of these
they have followed carefully the sinuosities, and if the
course of the dykes appears siugular, it is to be ascribed to
the natural configuration of the ground. Subsidiary em
bankments thrown up between the principal ones, and
parallel to the Nile, separate the higher ground bordering
the river from the low lands on the confines of the valley ;
they divide the larger basins into smaller divisions of vary
ing area, in which the irrigation is regulated by means of
special trenches. As long as the Nile is falling, the dwellers
on its banks leave their canals in free communication with
it ; but they dam them up towards the end of the winter,
just before the return of the inundation, and do not reopen
them till early in August, when the new flood is at its
height. The waters then flowing in by the trenches are
arrested by the nearest transverse dyke and spread over the
fields. When they have stood there long enough to saturate
the ground, the dyke is pierced, and they pour into the
next basin until they are stopped by a second dyke, which
in its turn forces them again to spread out on either side.
This operation is renewed from dyke to dyke, till the valley

90 THE NILE AND EGYPT

soon becomes a series of artificial ponds, ranged one above
another, and flowing one into another from Gebel Silsileh
to the apex of the Delta. In autumn, the mouth of each
ditch is dammed up anew, in order to prevent the mass of
water from flowing back into the stream. The transverse
dykes, which have been cut in various places, are also
repaired, and the basins become completely landlocked,
separated by narrow causeways. In some places, the water
thus imprisoned is so shallow that it is soon absorbed by
the soil ; in others, it is so deep, that after it has been kept
in for several weeks, it is necessary to Jet it run off into a
neighbouring depression, or straight into the river itself.

History has left us no account of the vicissitudes of the
struggle in which the Egyptians were engaged with the
Nile, nor of the time expended in bringing it to a successful
issue. Legend attributes the idea of the system and its
partial working out to the god Osiris : then Menes, the first
mortal king, is said to have made the dyke of Qosheish, on
which depends the prosperity of the Delta and Middle
Egypt, and the fabulous Moeris is supposed to have ex
tended the blessings of the irrigation to the Fayum. In
reality, the regulation of the inundation and the making of
cultivable laud are the work of unrecorded generations who
peopled the valley. The kings of the historic period had
only to maintain and develop certain points of what had
already been done, and Upper Egypt is to this day chequered
by the network of waterways with which its earliest inhabi
tants covered it. The work must have begun simultaneously
at several points, without previous agreement, and, as it
were, instinctively. A dyke protecting a village, a canal

PERPETUAL STRIFE 91

draining or watering some small province, demanded the
efforts of but few individuals ; then the dykes would join
one another, the canals would be prolonged till they met
others, and the work undertaken by chance would be im
proved, and would spread with the concurrence of an ever-
increasing population. What happened at the end of last
century, shows us that the system grew and was developed
at the expense of considerable quarrels and bloodshed.
The inhabitants of each district carried out the part of the
work most conducive to their own interest, seizing the

BOATMEN FIGHTING ON A CANAL COMMUNICATING WITH THE NILE. 1

supply of water, keepiag it and discharging it at pleasure,
without considering whether they were injuring their neigh
bours by depriving them of their supply or by flooding
them ; hence arose perpetual strife and fighting. It became
imperative that the rights of the weaker should be respected,
and that the system of distribution should be co-ordinated,
for the country to accept a beginning at least of social
organization analogous to that which it acquired later : the

1 Bas-relief from the tomb of Ti ; drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a
photograph by E. Brugsch-Bey.

THE NILE AND EGYPT

Nile thus determined the political as well as the physical
constitution of Egypt.

The country was divided among communities, whose
members were supposed to be descended from the same

A GKEAT EGYPTIAN LORD, TI, AND HIS WIFE. 1

seed (petit) and to belong to the same family (pdttu) : the
chiefs of them were called ropdttfi, the guardians, or pastors

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by DUMICHEN, Resultate,
vol. ii. pi. vii.

THE PRINCES OF THE NOMES 93

of the family, and in later times their name became a title
applicable to the nobility in general. Families combined
and formed groups of various importance under the
authority of a head chief ropditu-hd. They were, in fact,
hereditary lords, dispensing justice, levying taxes in kind
on their subordinates, reserving to themselves the re
distribution of land, leading their men to battle, and
sacrificing to the gods. 1 The territories over which they
exercised authority formed small states, whose boundaries
even now, in some places, can be pointed out with
certainty. The principality of the Terebinth 2 occupied
the very heart of Egypt, where the valley is widest, and
the course of the Nile most advantageously disposed by
nature a country well suited to be the cradle of an infant
civilization. Siaut (Siut), the capital, is built almost at
the foot of the Libyan range, on a strip of land barely
a mile in width, which separates the river from the hills.
A canal surrounds it on three sides, and makes, as it
were, a natural ditch about its walls ; during the inunda
tion it is connected with the mainland only by narrow
causeways shaded with mimosas and looking like a raft
of verdure aground in the current. 3 The site is as happy

1 These prerogatives were still exercised by the princes of the nomes
under the Middle and New Empires ; they only enjoyed them then by the
good will of the reigning sovereign.

2 The Egyptian word for the tree which gives its name to this principality
is atf, iatf, iotf : it is only by a process of elimination that I have come to
identify it with the Pistacia Terebinthus, L., which furnished the Egyptians
with the scented resin snutir.

3 Boudier s drawing, reproduced on p. 31, and taken from a photograph
by Beato, gives most faithfully the aspect presented by the plain and the
modern town of Siout during the inundation.

THE NILE AND EGYPT

*"* ^VxV* *

as it is picturesque; not only does the town command

the two arms of the
river, opening or
closing the water
way at will, but

from time imme
morial the most
frequented of the
routes into Central
Africa has termi
nated at its gates,
bringing to it the
commerce of the
Soudan. It held
sway, at the outset,
over both banks,
from range to
range, northward
as far as Deyrut,
where the true
Bahr Yusuf leaves
the Nile, and south
ward to the neigh
bourhood of Gebel
Sheikh Haridi. The
extent and original
number of the other
principalities is not
so easily deter
mined. The most important, to the north of Skit, w r ere those

NOMES

of
IV1IDDLE EGYPT

Scale

TbBL

IvasfiL, (Ptolemau ,
Sfeof Greenwich

THE EARLIEST PRINCIPALITIES 95

of the Hare and the Oleander. The principality of the Hare
never reached the dimensions of that of its neighbour the
Terebinth, but its chief town was Khrnunu, whose antiquity
was so remote, that a universally accepted tradition made
it the scene of the most important acts of creation. 1 That
of the Oleander, on the contrary, was even larger than
that of the Terebinth, and from Hininsu, its chief governor
ruled alike over the marshes of the Fayum and the plains
of Beni-Suef. 2 To the south, Apu on the right bank
governed a district so closely shut in between a bend of
the Nile and two spurs of the range, that its limits have
never varied much since ancient times. Its inhabitants
were divided in their employment between weaving and
the culture of cereals. From early times they possessed
the privilege of furnishing clothing to a large part of
Egypt, and their looms, at the present day, still make
those checked or striped " melayahs which the fellah
women wear over their long blue tunics. 3 Beyond Apu,
Thinis, the Girgeh of the Arabs, situate on both banks
of the river, rivalled Khmunu in antiquity and Siut in
wealth : its plains still produce the richest harvests and

1 Khmunu, the present Ashmunein, is the Hermopolis of the Greeks,
the town of the god Thot.

2 Hininsu is the Heracleopolis Magna of the Greeks, the present Henassieh,
called also Ahnas-el-Medineh. The Egyptian word for the tree which gives
its name to this principality, is NAR!T. Loret has shown that this tree,
NdrU, is the oleander.

3 Apu was the Panopolis or Chemmis of the Greeks, the town of the
god Min or ithyphallic Khimu. Its manufactures of linen are mentioned by
Strabo ; the majority of the beautiful Coptic woven fabrics and embroideries
which have been brought to Europe lately, come from the necropolis of the
Arab period at Apu,

THE NILE AND EGYPT

feed the most numerous herds of sheep and oxen in the
Sai d. As we approach the cataract, information becomes
scarcer. Qubti and Aimu of the South, the Coptos and

parrov^-hawks

- &gt; % - ~"

NOMES

of
UPPER EGYPT

L.Thuillier, del 1

Hermonthis of the Greeks, shared peaceably the plain
occupied later on by Thebes and its temples, and Nekhabit
and Zobu watched over the safety of Egypt. Nekhablfc
soon lost its position as a frontier town, and that portion

DIVISIONS OF THE DELTA 97

of Nubia lying between Gebel Silsileh and the rapids of
Syene formed a kind of border province, of which Nubit-
Ombos was the principal sanctuary and Abu-Elephantine
the fortress : beyond this were the barbarians, and those
inaccessible regions whence the Nile descended upon our
earth.

The organization of the Delta, it would appear, was
more slowly brought about. It must have greatly re
sembled that of the lowlands of Equatorial Africa, towards
the confluence of the Bahr el Abiad and the Bahr el
Ghazal. Great tracts of mud, difficult to describe as
either solid or liquid, marshes dotted here and there with
sandy islets, bristling with papyrus reeds, water-lilies, and
enormous plants through which the arms of the Nile
sluggishly pushed their ever-shifting course, low-lying
wastes intersected with streams and pools, unfit for
cultivation and scarcely available for pasturing cattle.
The population of such districts, engaged in a ceaseless
struggle with nature, always preserved relatively ruder
manners, and a more rugged and savage character,
impatient of all authority. The conquest of this region
began from the outer edge only. A few principalities were
established at the apex of the Delta in localities where
the soil had earliest been won from the river. It appears
that one of these divisions embraced the country south
of and between the bifurcation of the Nile : Aunu of the
North, the Heliopolis of the Greeks, was its capital. In
very early times the principality was divided, and formed
three new states, independent of each other. Those of
Aunu and the Haunch were opposite to each other, the

VOL. i. H

98 THE NILE AND EGYPT

first on the Arabian, the latter on the Libyan bank of the
Nile. The district of the White Wall marched with that
of the Haunch on the north, and on the south touched
the territory of the Oleander. Further down the river,
between the more important branches, the governors of
Sai s and of Bubastis, of Athribis and of Busiris, shared
among themselves the primitive Delta. Two frontier
provinces of unequal size, the Arabian on the east in the
Wady Tumilat, and the Libyan on the west to the south
of Lake Mareotis, defended the approaches of the country
from the attacks of Asiatic Bedawins and of African
nomads. The marshes of the interior and the dunes of
the littoral, were not conducive to the development of any
great industry or civilization. They only comprised tracts
of thinly populated country, like the principalities of the
Harpoon and of the Cow, and others whose limits varied
from century to century with the changing course of the
river. The work of rendering the marshes salubrious and
of digging canals, which had been so successful in the
Nile Valley, was less efficacious in the Delta, and proceeded
more slowly. Here the embankments were not supported
by a mountain chain : they were continued at random
across the marshes, cut at every turn to admit the waters
of a canal or of an arm of the river. The waters left
their usual bed at the least disturbing influence, and made
a fresh course for themselves across country. If the inun
dation were delayed, the soft and badly drained soil again
became a slough : should it last but a few weeks longer
than usual, the work of several generations was for a long
time undone. The Delta of one epoch rarely presented

DIVISIONS OP THE DELTA

the same aspect as that of previous periods, and Northern
Egypt never became as fully mistress of her soil as the
Egypt of the south.

These first principalities, however small they appear to

VfJy W 5 *.

nitAnbiL-m&^Sl-JtasgaA.)

#*;M 7^r^%p* w *O^^B

ae & / ^f^ e ^-YM.iicf,ieAy - \ ,,, . , %/ i^=

:?& * c? %??4^^r^

NOMES

OF
LOWER EGYPT

LThuJlier del*

us, were yet too large to remain undivided. In those
times of slow communication, the strong attraction which a
capital exercised over the provinces under its authority did
not extend over a wide radius. That part of the population

100 THE NILE AND EGYPT

of the Terebinth, living sufficiently near to Siut to come
into the town for a few hours in the morning, returning
in the evening to the villages when business was done,
would not feel any desire to withdraw from the rule of the
prince who governed there. On the other hand, those who
lived outside that restricted circle were forced to seek else
where some places of assembly to attend the administration
of justice, to sacrifice in common to the national gods, and
to exchange the produce of the fields and of local manu
factures. Those towns which had the good fortune to
become such rallying-points naturally played the part of
rivals to the capital, and their chiefs, with the district
whose population, so to speak, gravitated around them,
tended to become independent of the prince. When they
succeeded in doing this, they often preserved for the new
state thus created, the old name, slightly modified by the
addition of an epithet. The primitive territory of Siut was
in this way divided into three distinct communities ; two,
which remained faithful to the old emblem of the tree
the Upper Terebinth, with Siut itself in the centre, and the
Lower Terebinth, with Kfisit to the north ; the third, in
the south and east, took as their totem the immortal
serpent which dwelt in their mountains, and called them
selves the Serpent Mountain, whose chief town was that of
the Sparrow Hawk. The territory of the Oleander produced
by its dismemberment the principality of the Upper Oleander,
that of the Lower Oleander, and that of the Knife. The
territory of the Harpoon in the Delta divided itself into
the Western and Eastern Harpoon. The fission in most
cases could not have been accomplished without struggles ;

THE GOD OF THE NOME 101

but it did take place, and all the principalities having a
domain of any considerable extent had to submit to it,
however they may have striven to avoid it. This parcelling
out was continued as circumstances afforded opportunity,
until the whole of Egypt, except the half desert districts
about the cataract, became but an agglomeration of petty
states nearly equal in power and population. 1

The Greeks called them nomes, and we have borrowed
the word from them; the natives named them in several
ways, the most ancient term being "nuifc," which may be
translated domain, and the most common appellation in
recent times being " hospu," which signifies district. The
number of the nomes varied considerably in the course
of centuries : the hieroglyphic monuments and classical
authors fixed them sometimes at thirty-six, sometimes
at forty, sometimes at forty-four, or even fifty. The
little that we know of their history, up to the present
time, explains the reason of this variation. Ceaselessly
quarrelled over by the princely families who possessed
them, the nomes were alternately humbled and exalted
by civil wars, marriages, and conquest, which caused
them continually to pass into fresh hands, either entire
or divided. The Egyptians, whom we are accustomed
to consider as a people respecting the established order
of things, and conservative of ancient tradition, showed

1 Examples of the subdivision of ancient nomes and the creation, of fresh
nomes are met with long after primitive times. We find, for example, the
nome of the Western Harpoon divided under the Greeks and Romans into
two districts that of the Harpoon proper, of which the chief town was
Sonti-nofir ; and that of Ranufir, with the Onuphis of classical geographers
for its capital.

102 THE NILE AND EGYPT

themselves as restless and as prone to modify or destroy
the work of the past, as the most inconstant of our modern
nations. The distance of time which separates them from
us, and the almost complete absence of documents, gives
them an appearance of immobility, by which we are liable
to be unconsciously deceived; when the monuments still
existing shall have been unearthed, their history will present
the same complexity of incidents, the same agitations, the
same instability, which we suspect or know to have been
characteristic of most other Oriental nations. One thing
alone remained stable among them in the midst of so many
revolutions, and which prevented them from losing their
individuality and from coalescing in a common unity. This
was the belief in and the worship of one particular deity.
If the little capitals of the petty states whose origin is lost
in a remote past Edfu and Denderah, Nekhabit and Buto,
Siufc, Thinis, Khmunu, Sais, Bubastis, Athribis had only
possessed that importance which resulted from the presence
of an ambitious petty prince, or from the wealth of their
inhabitants, they would never have passed safe and sound
through the long centuries of existence which they enjoyed
from the opening to the close of Egyptian history. Fortune
raised their chiefs, some even to the rank of rulers of the
world, and in turn abased them : side by side with the
earthly ruler, whose glory was but too often eclipsed, there
was enthroned in each nome a divine ruler, a deity, a
god of the domain, " nutir nuiti," whose greatness never
perished. The princely families might be exiled or become
extinct, the extent of the territory might diminish or in
crease, the town might be doubled in size and population

THE GOD OF THE NOME 103

or fall in ruins : the god lived on through all these vicissi
tudes, and his presence alone preserved intact the rights of
the state over which he reigned as sovereign. If any
disaster befell his worshippers, his temple was the spot
where the survivors of the catastrophe rallied around him,
their religion preventing them from mixing with the in
habitants of neighbouring towns and from becoming lost
among them. The survivors multiplied with that extra
ordinary rapidity which is the characteristic of the Egyptian
fellah, and a few years of peace sufficed to repair losses
which apparently were irreparable. Local religion was the
tie which bound together those divers elements of which
each principality was composed, and as long as it remained,
the nomes remained; when it vanished, they disappeared
with it.

THE GODS OF EGYPT

THEIR NUMBER AND NATURE THE FEUDAL GODS, LIVING AND DEAD TRIADS
THE TEMPLES AND PRIESTHOOD THE COSMOGONIES OF THE DELTA THE
ENNEADS OF HELIOPOLIS AND HERMOPOLIS.

Multiplicity of the Egyptian gods : the commonalty of the gods, its varieties,
human, animal, and intermediate between man and beast ; gods of foreign
origin, indigenous gods, and the contradictory forms with which they were
invested in accordance with various conceptions of their nature.

The Star-gods The Sun-god as the Eye of the Sky ; as a bird, as a calf,
and as a man ; its barks, voyages round the world, and encounters with the
serpent Apopi The Moon-god and its enemies The Star-gods: the Haunch of
the Ox, the Hippopotamus, the Lion, the jive Horus-planets ; Sothis Sirius, and
Sahu Orion.

The feudal gods and their classes: the Nile-gods, the earth-gods, the sky-
gods and the sun-god, the Horus-gods The equality of feudal gods and

( 106 )

goddesses ; their persons, alliances, and marriages: their children The triads
and their various developments.

Tlie nature of the gods: the double, the soul, the body, death of men and
gods, and their fate after death The necessity for preserving the body, mummifi
cation Dead gods the gods of the dead The living gods, their temples and
images The gods of the people, trees, serpents, family fetiches The theory of
prayer and sacrifice : the servants of the temples, the property of the gods, the
sacerdotal colleges.

The cosmogonies of the Delta : Sibil and Nuit, Osiris and Isis, Sit and
Nephthys Heliopolis and its theological schools : Rd, his identification iviih
Horus, his dual nature, and the conception of Atumu The Heliopolitan
Enneads : formation of the Great Ennead Thot and the Hermopolitan
Ennead : creation by articulate words and by voice alone Diffusion of the
Enneads : their connection with the local triads, the god One and the god
Eight The one and only gods.

SOLEMN SACRIFICIAL PROCESSION OF THE FATTED BULL. 1

CHAPTER II

THE GODS OF EGYPT

Their number and their nature-The feudal gods, living and dead The
Triads Temples and priests The cosmogonies of the Delta The
Enneads of Heliopolis and of Hermopolis.

KING SETI I. KNEELING. 2

HE incredible number of religious
scenes to be found among the
representations on the ancient
monuments of Egypt is at first
glance very striking. Nearly every
illustration in the works of Egypto
logists brings before us the figure

1 Bas-relief in the temple of Luxor.
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by
Beato, taken in 1890. The two personages
marching in front, carrying great bouquets,
and each with an uplifted hand, are the
last in a long procession of the sons of
Rameses II.

2 Drawn by Boudier, from a bas-relief
of the temple of Abydos.

108

THE GODS OP EGYPT

of some deity receiving with an impassive countenance
the prayers and offerings of a worshipper. One would
think that the country had been inhabited for the most
part by gods, and contained just sufficient men and animals
to satisfy the requirements of their worship.

On penetrating into this mysterious world, we are

confronted by an actual rabble of-
gods, each one of whom has always
possessed but a limited and almost
unconscious existence. They sever
ally represented a function, a moment
in the life of man or of the universe ;
thus Naprit was identified with the
ripe ear, or the grain of wheat ; 2
Maskhonit appeared by the child s
cradle at the very moment of its
birth ; 3 and Eaninit presided over

1 The goddess Naprit, Napit ; bas-relief from
the first chamber of Osiris, on the east side of
the great temple of Denderah. Drawn by
Faucher-Gudin.

2 The word naprit means grain, the grain of
wheat. The grain-god is represented in the
tomb of Seti I. as a man wearing two full ears
of wheat or barley upon his head. He is men
tioned in the Hymn to the Nile about the same
date, and in two or three other texts of different
periods. The goddess Naprit, or Naptt, to
whom reference is here made, was his duplicate ;

her head-dress is a sheaf of corn, as in the illustration.

3 This goddess, whose name expresses and whose form personifies the
brick or stone couch, the child-bed or -chair, upon which women in labour
bowed themselves, is sometimes subdivided into two or four secondary
divinities. She is mentioned along with Shait, destiny, and Raninit, suckling.

THE GODDESS NAPRIT NAPIT. 1

VARIOUS ORDERS OP GODS 109

the naming and the nurture of the newly born. 1 Neither
Kaninit, the fairy godmother, nor Maskhonit exercised over
nature as a whole that sovereign authority which we are
accustomed to consider the primary attribute of deity.
Every day of every year was passed by the one in easing
the pangs of women in travail ; by the other, in choosing
for each baby a name of an auspicious sound, and one
which would afterwards serve to exorcise the influences
of evil fortune. No sooner were their tasks accomplished
in one place than they hastened to another, where
approaching birth demanded their presence and their
care. From child-bed to child-bed they passed, and if
they fulfilled the single offices in which they were
accounted adepts, the pious asked nothing more of them.
Bands of mysterious cynocephali haunting the Eastern
and the Western mountains concentrated the whole of
their activity on one passing moment of the day. They
danced and chattered in the East for half an hour, to
salute the sun at his rising, even as others in the West
hailed him on his entrance into night. 2 It was the duty

Her part of fairy godmother at the cradle of the new-born child is indicated
in the passage of the Westcar Papyrus giving a detailed account of the births
of three kings of the fifth dynasty. She is represented in human form, and
often wears upon her head two long palm-shoots, curling over at their ends.

Eaninit presides over the child s suckling, but she also gives him his
name, and hence, his fortune. She is on the whole the nursing goddess.
Sometimes she is represented as a human-headed woman, or as lioness-
headed, most frequently with the head of a serpent ; she is also the urseus,
clothed, and wearing two long plumes on her head, and a simple urceus, as
represented in the illustration on p. 169.

2 This is the subject of a vignette in the Book of the Dead, ch. xvi.,
where the cynocephali are placed in echelon upon the slopes of the hill on

110

THE GODS OP EGYPT

of certain genii to open gates in Hades, or to keep the
paths daily traversed by the sun. 1 These genii were always
at their posts, never free to leave them, and possessed no
other faculty than that of punctually fulfilling their
appointed offices. Their existence, generally unperceived,
was suddenly revealed at the very moment when the
specific acts of their lives were on the point of accomplish
ment. These being completed, the divinities fell back into
their state of inertia, and were, so to speak, reabsorbed by

SOME FABULOUS BEASTS OF THE EGYPTIAN DESERT. 2

their functions until the next occasion. 3 Scarcely visible
even by glimpses, they were not easily depicted ; their

the horizon, right and left of the radiant solar disk, to which they offer
worship by gesticulations.

1 MASPERO, tades de Mythologie el d Archeologie JZgyptiennes, vol. ii. pp.
34, 35.

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from Champollion s copies, made from the
tombs of Beni-Hassan. To the right is the sTia, one of the animals of Sit,
and an exact image of the god with his stiff and arrow-like tail. Next comes
the safir, the griffin ; and, lastly, we have the serpent-headed saza.

The Egyptians employed a still more forcible expression than our word
" absorption " to express this idea. It was said of objects wherein these
genii concealed themselves, and whence they issued in order to re-enter them
immediately, that these forms ate them, or that they ate their own forms.

THE LOWER ORDER 111

real forms being often unknown, these were approximately
conjectured from their occupations. The character and
costume of an archer, or of a spear-man, were ascribed to
such as roamed through Hades, to pierce the dead with
arrows or with javelins. Those who prowled around souls
to cut their throats and hack them to pieces were repre
sented as women armed with knives, carvers dontt or
else as lacerators noMt. Some appeared in human form ;
others as animals bulls or lions, rams or monkeys, serpents,
fish, ibises, hawks ; others dwelt in inanimate things, such
as trees, 1 sistrums, stakes stuck in the ground ; 2 and lastly,
many betrayed a mixed origin in their combinations of
human and animal forms. These latter would be regarded
by us as monsters ; to the Egyptians, they were beings,
rarer perhaps than the rest, but not the less real, and their
like might be encountered in the neighbourhood of Egypt. 3

1 Thus, the sycamores planted on the edge of the desert were supposed to
be inhabited by Hathor, Nuit, Selkit, Nit, or some other goddess. In
vignettes representing the deceased as stopping before one of these trees and
receiving water and loaves of bread, the bust of the goddess generally
appears from amid her sheltering foliage. But occasionally, as on the
sarcophagus of Petosiris, the transformation is complete, and the trunk
from which the branches spread is the actual body of the god or goddess.
Finally, the whole body is often hidden, and only the arm of the goddess to
be seen emerging from the midst of the tree, with an overflowing libation
vase in her hand.

2 The trunk of a tree, disbranched, and then set up in the ground, seems
to me the origin of the Osirian emblem called tat or did A. The symbol was
afterwards so conventionalized as to represent four columns seen in per
spective, one capital overtopping another ; it thus became the image of the
four pillars which uphold the world.

3 The belief in the real existence of fantastic animals was first noted by
MASPERO, Etudes de Mythologie et d Archeologie JZgyptiennes, vol. i. pp. 117,
118, 132, and vol. ii. p. 213. Until then, scholars only recognized the

112 THE GODS OF EGYPT

How could men who believed themselves surrounded by
sphinxes and griffins of flesh and blood doubt that there
were bull-headed and hawk-headed divinities with human
busts ? The existence of such paradoxical creatures was
proved by much authentic testimony; more than one
hunter had distinctly seen them as they ran along the
furthest planes of the horizon, beyond the herds of gazelles
of which he was in chase ; and shepherds dreaded them for
their flocks as truly as they dreaded the lions, or the great
felidae of the desert. 1

This nation of gods, like nations of men, contained
foreign elements, the origin of which was known to the
Egyptians themselves. They knew that Hathor, the milch
cow, had taken up her abode in their land from very
ancient times, and they called her the Lady of Puanit,
after the name of her native country. Bisu had followed
her in course of time, and claimed his share of honours
and worship along with her. He first appeared as a
leopard; then he became a man clothed in a leopard s
skin, but of strange countenance and alarming character,
a big-headed dwarf with high cheek-bones, and a wide
and open mouth, whence hung an enormous tongue ; he

sphinx, and other Egyptian monsters, as allegorical combinations by which
the priesthood claimed to give visible expression in one arid the same being
to physical or moral qualities belonging to several different beings. The
later theory has now been adopted by WIEDEMANN, and by most contem
porary Egyptologists.

1 At Beni-Hassan and in Thebes many of the fantastic animals mentioned
in the text, griffins, hierosphinxes, serpent-headed lions, are placed along
with animals which might be encountered by local princes hunting in the
desert.

GODS OF FOREIGN ORIGIN

113

was at once jovial and martial, the friend of the dance
and of battle. 1 In historic times all nations subjugated by
the Pharaohs transferred some of their principal divinities
to their conquerors, and the Libyan Shehadidi was
enthroned in the valley of the Nile, in the same way as
the Semitic Baalu and his retinue of Astartes, Anitis,
Reshephs, and Kadshus. These divine colonists fared
like all foreigners who have sought to settle on the banks
of the Nile : they were promptly assimilated, wrought,
moulded, and made into Egyptian deities scarcely distin
guishable from those of the old race. This mixed pantheon

SOME FABULOUS BEASTS OF THE EGYPTIAN DESERT.

had its grades of nobles, princes, kings, and each of its
members was representative of one of the elements con
stituting the world, or of one of the forces which regulated
its government. The sky, the earth, the stars, the sun,
the Nile, were so many breathing and thinking beings
whose lives were daily manifest in the life of the universe.

Bisu, pp. 111-184. The tail-piece to the summary of this chapter is a
figure of Bisu, drawn by Faucher-Gudin from an amulet in blue enamelled
pottery.

2 The hawk-headed monster with flower-tipped tail was called the saga.
VOL. I. I

114 THE GODS OF EGYPT

They were worshipped from one end of the valley to the
other, and the whole nation agreed in proclaiming their
sovereign power. But when the people began to name*-
them, to define their powers and attributes, to particularize
their forms, or the relationships that subsisted among them,
this unanimity was at an end. Each principality, each
nome, each city, almost every village, conceived and
represented them differently. Some said that the sky was
the Great Horus, Haroeris, the sparrow-hawk of mottled
plumage which hovers in highest air, and whose gaze
embraces the whole field of creation. Owing to a punning
assonance between his name and the word horu, which
designates the human countenance, the two senses were
combined, and to the idea of the sparrow-hawk there was
added that of a divine face, whose two eyes opened in turn,
the right eye being the sun, to give light by day, and the
left eye the moon, to illumine the night. The face shone
also with a light of its own, the zodiacal light, which
appeared unexpectedly, morning or evening, a little before
sunrise, and a little after sunset. These luminous beams,
radiating from a common centre, hidden in the heights of
the firmament, spread into a wide pyramidal sheet of liquid
blue, whose base rested upon the earth, but whose apex
was slightly inclined towards the zenith. The divine face
was symmetrically framed, and attached to earth by four
thick locks of hair ; these were the pillars which upbore
the firmament and prevented its falling into ruin. A no
less ancient tradition disregarded as fabulous all tales told
of the sparrow-hawk, or of the face, and taught that
heaven and earth are wedded gods, Sibu, and Nuit, from

THEIR CONFLICTING FORMS

115

whose marriage came forth all that has been, all that is,
and all that shall he. Most people invested them with
human form, and represented
the earth-god Sibii as extended
beneath Nuit the Starry One ;
the goddess stretched out her
arms, stretched out her slender
legs, stretched out her body
above the clouds, and her dis
hevelled head drooped west
ward. But there were also
many who believed that Sibu
was concealed under the form
of a colossal gander, whose mate
once laid the Sun Egg, and
perhaps still laid it daily. From
the piercing cries wherewith
he congratulated her, and an
nounced the good news to all
who cared to hear it after the
manner of his kind he had
received the flattering epithet
of Ngagu ozru, the Great Cack-
ler. Other versions repudiated
the goose in favour of a vigorous
bull, the father of gods and
men, whose companion was a

COW, a large-eyed Hathor, of NtfiT THE STAKRY ONE.*

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a painted coffin of the XXI st dynasty
in Leyden.

116

THE GODS OP EGYPT

beautiful countenance. The head of the good beast rises
into the heavens, the mysterious waters which cover the
world flow along her spine ; the star-covered underside
of her body, which we call the firmament, is visible to
the inhabitants of earth, and her four legs are the four
pillars standing at the four cardinal points of the world.

THE GOOSE-GOD FACING THE CAT-GODDESS, THE LADY OF HEAVEN. 1

The planets, and especially the sun, varied in form
and nature according to the prevailing conception of the
heavens. The fiery disk Atonu, by which the sun revealed-
himself to men, was a living god, called Ra, as was also

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a stella in the museum of Gizeh. This
is not the goose of Sibu, but the goose of Amon, which was nurtured in the
temple of Karnak, and was called Smonu. Facing it is the cat of Maut, the
wife of Amon. Amon, originally an earth-god, was, as we see, confounded
with Sibu, and thus naturally appropriated that deity s form of a goose.

THE LADY OF HEAVEN

117

the planet itself. 1 Where the sky was regarded as Horus,
Ka formed the right eye of the divine face : when Horus
opened his eyelids in the
morning, he made the
dawn and day ; when he
closed them in the even
ing, the dusk and night
were at hand. Where
the sky was looked upon
as the incarnation of a
goddess, Ea was con
sidered as her son, 2 his

1 The name of Ea has been
variously explained. The com
monest etymology is that deriv
ing the name from a verb RA, to
give, to make to be a person or a
thing, so that Ea would thus be
the great organizer, the author
of all things. LAUTH goes so
far as to say that "notwith
standing its brevity, Ea is a com
posite word (R-A, maker to be}."
As a matter of fact, the word
is simply the name of the planet
applied to the god. It means the sun, and nothing more.

1 Several passages from the Pyramid texts prove that the two eyes were
very anciently considered as belonging to the face of Nuit, and this con
ception persisted to the last days of Egyptian paganism. Hence, we must not
be surprised if the inscriptions generally represent the god Ea as coming
forth from Nuit under the form of a disc, or a scarabaeus, and born of her
even as human children are born.

Drawn by Boudier, from a XXX th dynasty statue of green basalt in the
Gizeh Museum (MASPERO, Guide du Visiteur, p. 345, No. 5243). The statue
was also published by MARIETTE, Monuments divers, pi. 96 A-B, and in the
Album photograph! que du Muse e de Boulaq, pi. x.

THE COW HATHOlt, THE LADY OF HEAVEN. 3

118

THE GODS OF EGYPT

father being the earth-god, and he was born again with
every new dawn, wearing a sidelock, and with his finger to
his lips as human children were conventionally repre
sented. He was also that luminous egg, laid and hatched in

THE TWELVE STAGES IX THE LIFE OF THE SUN AND ITS TWELVE FORMS

THROUGHOUT THE DAY. 1

the East by the celestial goose, from which the sun breaks
forth to fill the world with its rays. 2 Nevertheless, by an

1 The twelve forms of the sun during the twelve hours of the day, from
the ceiling of the Hall of the New Year at Edfu. Drawing by Faucher-
Gudin.

2 These are the very expressions used in the seventeenth chapter of the

THE SUN AS A MAN 119

anomaly not uncommon in religions, the egg did not always
contain the same kind of bird ; a lapwing, or a heron, might
come out of it, 1 or perhaps, in memory of Horus, one of
the beautiful golden sparrow-hawks of Southern Egypt. A
Sun-Hawk, hovering in high heaven on outspread wings,
at least presented a bold and poetic image ; but what can
be said for a Sun-Calf? Yet it is under the innocent
aspect of a spotted calf, a " sucking calf of pure mouth," 2
that the Egyptians were pleased to describe the Sun-God
when Sibu, the father, was a bull, and Hathor a heifer.
But the prevalent conception was that in which the life of
the sun was likened to the life of man. The two deities
presiding over the East received the orb upon their hands
at its birth, just as midwives receive a new-born child, and
cared for it during the first hour of the day and of its life.
It soon left them, and proceeded "under the belly of
Nuit," growing and strengthening from minute to minute,
until at noon it had become a triumphant hero whose
splendour is shed abroad over all. But as night comes on
his strength forsakes him and his glory is obscured ; he is
bent and broken down, and heavily drags himself along
like an old man leaning upon his stick. At length he

Booh of the Dead (NAVILLE S edition, vol. i. pi. xxv. lines 58-61 ; LEPSIUS,
Todtenbuch, pi. ix. 11. 50, 51).

1 The lapwing or the heron, the Egyptian bonu, is generally the Osirian
bird. The persistence with which it is associated with ireliopolis and the
gods of that city shows that in this also we have a secondary form of Ra.

2 The calf is represented in ch. cix. of the Boole of the Dead (NAVILLE S
edition, pi. cxx.), where the text says (lines 10, 11), "I know that this calf
is Harmakhis the Sun, and that it is no other than the Morning Star, daily
saluting Ra." The expression "sucking calf of pure mouth" is taken word
for word from a formula preserved in the Pyramid texts (tlnas, 1. 20)

120 THE GODS OF EGYPT

passes away beyond the horizon, plunging westward into
the mouth of Nuifc, and traversing her body by night
to be born anew the next morning, again to follow the
paths along which he had travelled on the preceding
day.

A first bark, the sakttt, awaited him at his birth, and
carried him from the Eastern to the Southern extremity of
the world. Mdztt, the second bark, received him at noon,
and bore him. into the land of Manu, which is at the
entrance into Hades ; other barks, with which we are less
familiar, conveyed him by night, from his setting until his
rising at morn. 1 Sometimes he was supposed to enter the
barks alone, and then they were magic and self-directed,
having neither oars, nor sails, nor helm. 2 Sometimes they
were equipped with a full crew, like that of an Egyptian
boat a pilot at the prow to take soundings in the channel
and forecast the wind, a pilot astern to steer, a quarter
master in the midst to transmit the orders of the pilot at
the prow to the pilot at the stern, and half a dozen sailors
to handle poles or oars. Peacefully the bark glided along
the celestial river amid the acclamations of the gods who
dwelt upon its shores. But, occasionally, Apopi, a gigantic
serpent, like that which hides within the earthly Nile and
devours its banks, came forth from the depth of the waters

1 In the formulas of the Book of Knowing that which is in Hades, the dead
sun remains in the bark Saktit during part of the night, and it is only to
traverse the fourth and fifth hours that he changes into another.

2 Such is the bark of the sun in the other world. Although carrying a
complete crewof gods, yet for the most part it progresses at its own will,
and without their help. The bark containing the sun alone is represented
in many vignettes of the Book of the Dead, and at the head of many stelae.

THE VOYAGES OF THE SUN 121

and arose in the path of the god. 1 As soon as they caught
sight of it in the distance, the crew flew to arms, and
entered upon the struggle against him with prayers and
spear-thrusts. Men in their cities saw the sun faint and
fail, and sought to succour him in his distress ; they cried
aloud, they were beside themselves with excitement, beat
ing their breasts, sounding their instruments of music, and
striking with all their strength upon every metal vase or
utensil in their possession, that their clamour might rise
to heaven and terrify the monster. After a time of anguish,
Ra emerged from the darkness and again went on his way,
while Apopi sank back into the abyss, 2 paralysed by the
magic of the gods, and pierced with many a wound. Apart
from these temporary eclipses, which no one could foretell,
the Sun-King steadily followed his course round the world,

In Upper Egypt there is a widespread belief in the existence of a
monstrous serpent, who dwells at the bottom of the river, and is the genius
of the Nile. It is he who brings about those falls of earth (batdbtt) at the
decline of the inundation which often destroy the banks and eat whole fields.
At such times, offerings of durrah, fowls, and dates are made to him, that
his hunger may be appeased, and it is not only the natives who give them
selves up to these superstitious practices. Part of the grounds belonging
to the Karnak hotel at Luxor having been carried away during the autumn
of 1884, the manager, a Greek, made the customary offerings to the serpent
of the Nile.

2 The character of Apopi and of his struggle with the sun was, from the
first, excellently defined by CHAMPOLLION as representing the conflict of
darkness with light. Occasionally, but very rarely, Ap6pi seems to win,
and his triumph over Ra furnishes one explanation of a solar eclipse. A
similar explanation is common to many races. In one very ancient form of
the Egyptian legend, the sun is represented by a wild ass running round the
world along the sides of the mountains that uphold the sky, and the serpent
which attacks it is called Haiti.

122 THE GODS OF EGYPT

according to laws which, even his will could not change.
Day after day he made his oblique ascent from east to
south, thence to descend obliquely towards the west.
During the summer months the obliquity of his course
diminished, and he came closer to Egypt ; during the
winter it increased, and he went farther away. This
double movement recurred with such regularity from
equinox to solstice, and from solstice to equinox, that the
day of the god s departure and the day of his return could
be confidently predicted. The Egyptians explained this
phenomenon according to their conceptions of the nature
of the world. The solar bark always kept close to that
bank of the celestial river which was nearest to men ; and
when the river overflowed at the annual inundation, the
sun was carried along with it outside the regular bed of
the stream, and brought yet closer to Egypt. As the
inundation abated, the bark descended and receded, its
greatest distance from earth corresponding with the lowest
level of the waters. It was again brought back to us
by the rising strength of the next flood ; and, as this
phenomenon was yearly repeated, the periodicity of the
sun s oblique movements was regarded as the necessary
consequence of the periodic movements of the celestial
Nile.

The same stream also carried a whole crowd of gods,
whose existence was revealed at night only to the inhabi
tants of earth. At an interval of twelve hours, and in its
own bark, the pale disk of the moon Yduhu Auhu followed
the disk of the sun along the ramparts of the world. The
moon, also, appeared in many various forms here, as a

PRINCIPAL CONSTELLATIONS

123

man bom of Nuit; 1 there, as a cynocephalus or an ibis; 2
elsewhere, it was the left eye of Horus, 3 guarded by the ibis
or cynocephalus. Like Ka, it had its enemies incessantly
upon the watch for it : the crocodile, the hippopotamus,

EGYPTIAN COSCEPTrOX OF THE PRINCIPAL CONSTELLATIONS OF THE NORTHEhN SKY. 4

and the sow. But it was when at the fall, about the 15th
of each month, that the lunar eye was in greatest peril.

1 He may be seen as a child, or man, bea-ring the lunar disk upon his
head, and pressing the lunar eye to his breast. Passages from the Pyramid
text of Unas indicate the relationship subsisting between Thot, Sibu, and
Nuit, making Thot the brother of Isis, Sit, and Nephthys. In later times
he was considered a son of Ra.

2 Even as late as the Grseco-Roman period, the temple of Thot at Khmunu
contained a sacred ibis, which was the incarnation of the god, and said to be
immortal by the local priesthood. The temple sacristans showed it to Apion
the grammarian, who reports the fact, but is very sceptical in the matter.

3 The texts quoted by Chabas and Lepsius to show that the sun is the
right eye of Horus also prove that his left eye is the moon.

4 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the ceiling of the Ramesseum. On
the right, the female hippopotamus bearing the crocodile, and leaning on the
Mondlt ; in the middle, the Haunch, here represented by the whole bull ; to
the left, Sclldt and the Sparrow-hawk, with the Lion, and the Giant fighting
the Crocodile.

124

THE GODS OP EGYPT

The sow fell upon it, tore it out of the face of heaven, and
cast it, streaming with blood and tears, into the celestial
Nile, where it was gradually extinguished, and lost for
days; but its twin, the sun, or its guardian, the cyno-
cephaltis, immediately set forth to find it and to restore it to
Horus. No sooner was it replaced, than it slowly recovered,

THE LUNAR BARK, SELF-PROPELLED, UNDER HIE PROTECTION OF THE TWO EYES.

and renewed its radiance; when it was well uzctit the
sow again attacked and mutilated it, and the gods rescued
and again revived it. Each month there was a fortnight
of youth and of growing splendour, followed by a fortnight s
agony and ever-increasing pallor. It was born to die, and
died to be born again twelve times in the year, and each
of these cycles measured a month for the inhabitants of the

THE STAR GODS

125

world. One invariable accident from time to time dis
turbed the routine of its existence. Profiting by some
distraction of the guardians, the sow greedily swallowed
it, and then its light went out suddenly, instead of fading
gradually. These eclipses, which alarmed mankind at least
as much as did those of the sun, were scarcely more than
momentary, the gods compelling the monster to cast up
the eye before it had been destroyed. Every evening the
lunar bark issued out of Hades by the door which Ra had

THE HAUNCH, AND THE FEMALE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 1

passed through in the morning, and as it rose on the hori
zon, the star-lamps scattered over the firmament appeared
one by one, giving light here and there like the camp-fires
of a distant army. However many of them there might
be, there were as many Indestructibles Akldmu Soku or
Unchanging Ones Akliimu Urdu whose charge it was to
attend upon them and watch over their maintenance. 2

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the rectangular zodiac carved upon the
ceiling of the great temple of Denderah (DuMiCHEN, Besultate, vol. ii. pi.
xxxix.).

2 The Akhimu-SoJcd and the Akliimu-lfrdd have been very variously
denned by different Egyptologists who have studied them. CIIABAS con
sidered them to be gods or genii of the constellations of the ecliptic, which

126 THE GODS OF EGYPT

They were not scattered at random by the hand which
had suspended them, but their distribution had been
ordered in accordance with a certain plan, and they were
arranged in fixed groups like so many star republics, each
being independent of its neighbours. They represented the
outlines of bodies of men and animals dimly traced out
upon the depths of night, but shining with greater bril
liancy in certain important places. The seven stars which
we liken to a chariot (Charles s Wain) suggested to the
Egyptians the haunch of an ox placed on the northern edge
of the horizon. 1 Two lesser stars connected the haunch
Maskhait with thirteen others, which recalled the sil
houette of a female hippopotamus Ririt erect upon her

mark the apparent course of the sun through the sky. Following the indica
tions given by Deveria, he also thought them to be the sailors of the solar
bark, and perhaps the gods of the twelve hours, divided into two classes :
the Akhimu-Sokii being those who are rowing, and the Akhimu-iJrdii those
who are resting. But texts found and cited by BRUGSCH show that the
Akhimii-SoltA are the planets accompanying Ra in the northern sky, while
the Alihlmu- Urdu are his escort in the south. The nomenclature of the stars
included in these two classes is furnished by monuments of widely different
epochs. The two names should be translated according to the meaning of
their component words : Akhimti SoM, those who know not destruction, the
Indestructi Ues ; and AkhimA tfrdil (Urzu), those who know not the immobility
of death, the Imperishables.

1 The forms of the constellations, and the number of stars composing
them in the astronomy of different periods, are known from the astronomical
scenes of tombs and temples. The identity of the Haunch with the Chariot,
or Great Bear of modern astronomy, was discovered by LEPSIUS and con
firmed by BIOT. MARIETTE pointed out that the Pyramid Arabs applied the
name of the Haunch (er-Bigl) to the same group of stars as that thus
designated by the ancient Egyptians. CHAMPOLLION had noted the position
of the Haunch in the northern sky, but had not suggested any identification.
The Haunch appertained to Sit-Typhon.

THE HORUS PLANETS

127

hind legs, 1 and jauntily carrying upon her shoulders a
monstrous crocodile whose jaws opened threateningly above
her head. Eighteen luminaries of varying size and splen
dour, forming a group hard by the hippopotamus, indicated

ORIOX, SOTHIS, AND TWO HOKUS-PLANETS STANDING IN THEIR BABKS. 2

the outline of a gigantic lion couchant, with stiffened tail,
its head turned to the right, and facing the Haunch. 3 Most

1 The connection of RirU, the female hippopotamus, with the Haunch is
made quite clear in scenes from Philse and Edfu, representing Isis holding
back Typhon by a chain, that he might do no hurt to Sahu-Osiris. JOLLOIS
and DEVILLIERS thought that the hippopotamus was the Great Bear. BIOT
contested their conclusions, and while holding that the hippopotamus might at
least in part present our constellation of the Dragon, thought that it was
probably included in the scene only as an ornament, or as an emblem. The
present tendency is to identify the hippopotamus with the Dragon and with
certain stars not included in the constellations surrounding it.

2 From the astronomic ceiling in the tomb of Seti I. (LEFEBURE, 4th
part, pi. xxxvi.).

3 The Lion, with its eighteen stars, is represented on the tomb of Seti
I. ; on the ceiling of the Ramesseum; and on the sarcophagus of Htari.

128

THE GODS OF EGYPT

of the constellations never left the sky : night after night
they were to be found almost in the same places, and
always shining with the same even light. Others borne by
a slow movement passed annually beyond the
limits of sight for months at a time. Five
at least of our planets were known from all
antiquity, and their characteristic colours and
appearances carefully noted. Sometimes each
was thought to be a hawk-headed Horus.
Uapshetatui, our Jupiter, Kahiri-(Saturn),
Sobku-(Mercury), steered their barks straight
ahead like lauhu and Ka; but Mars-Doshiri,
the red, sailed backwards. As a star Bonu,
the bird (Venus) had a dual personality;
in the evening it was Uati, the lonely star
which is the first to rise, often before night
fall ; in the morning it became Tiunutiri, the
god who hails the sun before his rising and
proclaims the dawn of day.

Sahu and Sopdit, Orion and Sirius, were
the rulers of this mysterious world. Sahu
consisted of fifteen stars, seven large and eight

The Lion is sometimes shown as having a crocodile s tail. According to
BIOT the Egyptian Lion has nothing in common with the Greek constellation
of that name, nor yet with our own, but was composed of smaller stars,
belonging to the Greek constellation of the Cup or to the continuation of
the Hydra, so that its head, its body, and its tail would follow the a of the
Hydra, between the &lt; and of that constellation, or the j of the Virgin.

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a small bronze in the Gizeh Museum,
published by MAEIETTE, in the Album photograpMque du Muse e de Boulaq, pi.
9. The legs are a modern restoration.

ORION AND SOTHLS

129

small, so arranged as to represent a runner darting through
space, while the fairest of them shone above his head, and
marked him out from afar to the admiration of mortals.
With his right hand he flourished the crux ansata, and
turning his head towards Sothis as he beckoned her on
with his leffc, seemed as though inviting her to follow

ORION AND THE COW SOTHIS SEPARATED BY THE SPARROW-HAWK. 1

him. The goddess, standing sceptre in hand, and
crowned with a diadem of tall feathers surmounted by
her most radiant star, answered the call of Sahu with
a gesture, and quietly embarked in pursuit as though in
no anxiety to overtake him. Sometimes she is repre
sented as a cow lying down in her bark, with tree stars
along her back, and Sirius naming from between her

1 Scene from the rectangular zodiac of Denderah, drawn by Faucher-
Gudin, from a photograph taken with magnesium light by DUMICHEN.

VOL. I.

130 THE GODS OF EGYPT

horns. 1 Not content to shine by night only, her bluish
rays, suddenly darted forth in full daylight and without
any warning, often described upon the sky the mystic lines
of the triangle which stood for her name. It was then
that she produced those curious phenomena of the zodiacal
light which other legends attributed to Horus himself.
One, and perhaps the most ancient of the innumerable
accounts of this god and goddess, represented Sahu as a
wild hunter. A world as vast as ours rested upon the
other side of the iron firmament ; like ours, it was dis
tributed into seas, and continents divided by rivers and
canals, but peopled by races unknown to men. Sahu.
traversed it during the day, surrounded by genii who
presided over the lamps forming his constellation. At his
appearing " the stars prepared themselves for battle, the
heavenly archers rushed forward, the bones of the gods
upon the horizon trembled at the sight of him," for it
was no common game that he hunted, but the very gods
themselves. One attendant secured the prey with a lasso,
as bulls are caught in the pastures, while another examined
each capture to decide if it were pure and good for food.
This being determined, others bound the divine victim,
cut its throat, disembowelled it, cut up its carcass, cast
the joints into a pot, and superintended their cooking.
Sahu did not devour indifferently all that the fortune of
the chase might bring him, but classified his game in

1 The identity of the cow with Sothis was discovered by JOLLOIS and
DEVILLIERS. It is under this animal form that Sothis is represented in
most of the Grseco-Roman temples, at Denderah, Edfu, Esneh, Der el-
Mediiieh.

ASSIMILATION OF THE GODS

131

accordance with his wants. He ate the great gods at his
breakfast in the morning, the lesser gods at his dinner
towards noon, and the small ones at his supper ; the old
were rendered more tender by roasting. As each god was
assimilated by him, its most precious virtues were transfused
into himself; by the wisdom of the old was his wisdom

AMON-15A, AS MINIJ OF COPTOS, AXD INVESTED WITH HIS EMBLEMS. 1

strengthened, the youth of the young repaired the daily
waste of his own youth, and all their fires, as they pene
trated his being, served to maintain the perpetual splendour
of his light.

1 Scene on the north wall of the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak ; drawn by
Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger, taken in 1882. The king, Seti I.,
is presenting bouquets of leaves to Amon-Minu. Behind the god stands Isis
(of Coptos), septre and crux ansata in hand.

132 THE GODS OF EGYPT

The nome gods who presided over the destinies of
Egyptian cities, and formed a true feudal system of
divinities, belonged to one or other of these natural
categories. In vain do they present themselves under the
most shifting aspects and the most deceptive attributes ;
in vain disguise themselves with the utmost care ; a closer
examination generally discloses the principal features of
their original physiognomies. Osiris of the Delta, Khnutnu
of the Cataract, Harshafitu of Heracleopolis, were each of
them incarnations of the fertilizing and life-sustaining Nile.
Wherever there is some important change in the river,
there they are more especially installed and worshipped :
Khnumu at the place of its entering into Egypt, and again
at the town of Haurit, near the point where a great arm
branches off from the Eastern stream to flow towards the
Libyan hills and form the Bahr-Yusuf : Harshafitu at
the gorges of the Fayum, where the Bahr-Yusuf leaves
the valley ; and, finally, Osiris at Mendes and at Busiris,
towards the mouth of the middle branch, which was held
to be the true Nile by the people of the land. Isis of
Buto denoted the black vegetable mould of the valley,
the distinctive soil of Egypt annually covered and fertilized
by the inundation. 1 But the earth in general, as dis
tinguished from the sky the earth with its continents, its
seas, its alternation of barren deserts and fertile lands
was represented as a man : Phtah at Memphis, Amon

1 In the case of Isis, as in that of Osiris, we must mark the original
character ; and note her characteristics as goddess of the Delta before she
had become a multiple and contradictory personality through being con
founded with other divinities.

THE HORUS GODS

133

at Thebes, Mirm at Coptos and at Panopolis. Amon
seems rather to have symbolized the productive soil, while
Minu reigned over the desert. But these were fine dis
tinctions, not invariably insisted upon, and his worshippers
often invested Amon with the most
significant attributes of Minu. The
Sky-gods, like the Earth-gods, were
separated into two groups, the one
consisting of women : Hathor of
Denderah, or Nit of Sais; the other
composed of men identical with Horus,
or derived from him : Anhuri-Shu of
Sebennytos and Thinis ; Harmerati,
Horus of the two eyes, at Pharbsethos ;
Har-Sapdi, Horus the source of the
zodiacal light, in the Wady Tumilat ;
and finally Harhuditi at Edfu. Ba, the
solar disk, was enthroned at Heliopolis,
and sun-gods were numerous among
the nome deities, but they were sun-
gods closely connected with gods repre
senting the sky, and resembled Horus
quite as much as Ra. Whether under
the name of Horus or of Anhuri, the
sky was early identified with its most
brilliant luminary, its solar eye, and
its divinity was as it were fused into that of the Sun.
Horus the Sun, and Ea, the Sun-God of Heliopolis, had

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze of the Sai te period, in my
own possession.

ANHURI.

134

THE GODS OF EGYPT

so permeated each other that none could say where the
one began and the other ended. One by one all the

functions of Ra had
been usurped by Horus,
and all the designa
tions of Horus had
been appropriated by
Ea. The sun was
styled Harmakhuiti,
the Horus of the two
mountains that is,
the Horus who comes
forth from the moun
tain of the east in the
morning, and retires
at evening into the
mountain of the west ; J
or Hartiina, Horus the
Pikeman, that Horus
whose lance spears the
hippopotamus or the
serpent of the celes
tial river; or Harnubi,
the Golden Horus,
THE HAWK-HEADED HORus 2 the great golden

1 From the time of Champollion, Harmakhuiti has been identified with
the Harmachis of the Greeks, the great Sphinx.

2 A bronze of the Saite period, from the Posno collection, and now in the
Louvre ; drawn by Faucher-Gudin. The god is represented as upholding a
libation vase with both hands, and pouring the life-giving water upon the
king, standing, or prostrate, before him. In performing this ceremony, he

EQUALITY OF GODS AND GODDESSES 135

sparrow-hawk with mottled plumage, who puts all other
birds to flight ; and these titles were indifferently applied to
each of the feudal gods who represented the sun. The latter
were numerous. Sometimes, as in the case of Harkhobi,
Horns of Khobiu, 1 a geographical qualification was appended
to the generic term of Horus, while specific names, almost
invariably derived from the parts which they were supposed
to play, were borne by others. The sky-god worshipped at
Thinis in Upper Egypt, at Zarit and at Sebennytos in
Lower Egypt, was called Anhuri. When he assumed the
attributes of Ea, and took upon himself the solar nature,
his name was interpreted as denoting the conqueror of
the sky. He was essentially combative. Crowned with a
group of upright plumes, his spear raised and ever ready
to strike the foe, he advanced along the firmament and
triumphantly traversed it day by day. 2 The sun-god who
at Medamot Taud and Erment had preceded Atnon as ruler
of the Theban plain, was also a warrior, and his name of
Montu had reference to his method of fighting. He was
depicted as brandishing a curved sword and cutting off the
heads of his adversaries. 3

was always assisted by another god, generally by Sit, sometimes by Thot or
Anubis.

1 Harlchobi, HarCimkliobiu is the Horus of the marshes (khobiu) of the
Delta, the lesser Horus the son of Isis, who was also made into the son of
Osiris.

2 The right reading of the name was given as far back as LEPSIUS. The
part played by the god, and the nature of the link connecting him with Shu,
have been explained by MASPERO. The Greeks transcribed his name Onouris,
and identified him with Ares.

3 Montu preceded Amon as god of the land between Kus and Gebelen,
and he recovered his old position in the Graeco-Roman period after the

136

THE GODS OF EGYPT

Each of the feudal gods naturally cherished pretensions
to universal dominion, and proclaimed himself the suzerain,
the father of all the gods, as the local prince was the
suzerain, the father of all men ; but the effective suzerainty
of god or prince really ended where that of his peers ruling

THE HORUS OF HIBONft, ON THE BACK OF THE GAZELLE.

over the adjacent nomes began. The goddesses shared in
the exercise of supreme power, and had the same right of

destruction of Thebes. Most Egyptologists, and finally BRUGSCH, made him
into a secondary form of Amon, which is contrary to what we know of the
history of the province. Just as Onu of the south (Erment) preceded Thebes
as the most important town in that district, so Montu had been its most
honoured god. HERR WIEDEMANN thinks the name related to that of Amoix
and derived from it, with the addition of the final til.

THE ANIMAL GODS 137

inheritance and possession as regards sovereignty that
women had in human law. 1 Isis was entitled lady and
mistress at Buto, as Hathor was at Denderah, and as Nit
at Sais, "the firstborn, when as yet there had been no
birth." They enjoyed in their cities the same honours as
the male gods in theirs ; as the latter were kings, so were
they queens, and all bowed down before them. The
animal gods, whether entirely in the form of beasts, or
having human bodies attached to animal heads, shared
omnipotence with those in human form. Horus of Hibonu
swooped down upon the back of a gazelle like a hunting
hawk, Hathor of Denderah was a cow, Bastit of Bubastis
was a cat or a tigress, while Nekhabit of El Kab was a
great bald-headed vulture. 2 Hermopolis worshipped the
ibis and cynocephalus of Thot ; Oxyrrhynchus the mor-
myrus fish ; 3 and Ombos and the Fayum a crocodile, under
the name of Sobku, 4 sometimes with the epithet of Azai,

1 In attempts at reconstituting Egyptian religions, no adequate weight
has hitherto been given to the equality of gods and goddesses, a fact to
which attention was first called by MASPEBO (Etudes de Mythologie et
d Archeologie tfgyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 253, et seq.).

2 Nekhabit, the goddess of the south, is the vulture, so often represented
in scenes of war or sacrifice, who hovers over the head of the Pharaohs. She
is also shown as a vulture-headed woman.

3 We have this on the testimony of classic writers, STEABO, book xvii.
p. 812, De Iside et Csiride, vii., 1872, PARTHEY S edition, pp. 9, 30, 128;
.^ELIANUS, Hist, anim., book x. 46.

1 Sobku, SovkH is the animal s name, and the exact translation of SovkH
would be crocodile-god. Its Greek transcription is Sou^o?. On account of
the assonance of the names he was sometimes confounded with SivA, Sibu
by the Egyptians themselves, and thus obtained the titles of that god. This
was especially the case at the time when Sit having been proscribed, Sovku
the crocodile, who was connected with Sit, shared his evil reputation, and
endeavoured to disguise his name or true character as much as possible.

138

THE GODS OF EGYPT

the brigand. 1 We cannot always understand what led the
inhabitants of each nome to affect one animal rather than
another. Why, towards Graco-Roman times, should they
have worshipped the jackal, or even the dog, at Siut? 2

How came Sit to be incarnate
in a fennec, or in an imaginary
quadruped ? 3 Occasionally, how
ever, we can follow the train of
thought that determined their
choice. The habit of certain
monkeys in assembling as it were

1 Azai is generally considered to bo
the Osiris of the Fay urn, but he was only
transformed into Osiris, and that by the
most daring process of assimilation. His
full name defines him as Osiri Azai hi JidU
To-shit (Osiris the Brigand, who is
in the Fay dm), that is to say, as
Sovku identified with Osiris.

2 Uapuaitu, the guide of the
celestial ways, who must not be
confounded with Anubis of the
Cynopolite nome of Upper Egypt,
was originally the feudal god of
Siut. He guided human souls to
the paradise of the Oasis, and the
sun upon its southern path by
day, and its northern path by night.

3 Champollion, Rosellini, Lepsius, have held that the Typhonian animal
was a purely imaginary one, and Wilkinson says that the Egyptians them
selves admitted its unreality by representing it along with other fantastic
beasts This would rather tend to show that they believed in its actual
existence (cf. p. 112 of this History). PLEYTE thinks that it may be a
degenerated form of the figure of the ass or oryx.

4 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a green enamelled figure in my posses
sion (Saite period).

THE CAT-HEADED HAST. 4

THE TRIADS

139

in full court, and chattering noisily a little before sunrise and
sunset, would almost justify the as yet uncivilized Egyptians

THE FENNEC, SUPPOSED PROTOTYPE OF THE TYPHONIAN AXIMAL.

in entrusting cynocephali with the charge of hailing the god
morning and evening as he appeared in the east, or passed

TWO CYXOCEPHAU IX ADORATION" BEFORE THE RISING SUN. 1

away in the west. If Ea was held to be a grasshopper
under the Old Empire, it was because he flew far up

1 Sculptured and painted scene from the tympanum of a stela in the
Gizeh Museum. Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil
Brugsch-Bey.

140 THE GODS OF EGYPT

in the sky like the clouds of locusts driven from Central
Africa which suddenly fall upon the fields and ravage them.
Most of the Nile-gods, Khnumu, Osiris, Harshafitu, were
incarnate in the form of a ram or of a buck. Does not the
masculine vigour and procreative rage of these animals
naturally point them out as fitting images of the life-giving
Nile and the overflowing of its waters ? It is easy to
understand how the neighbourhood of a marsh or of a
rock-encumbered rapid should have suggested the crocodile
as supreme deity to the inhabitants of the Fayum or of
Ombos. The crocodiles there multiplied so rapidly as to
constitute a serious danger; there they had the mastery,
and could be appeased only by means of prayers and sacri
fices. When instinctive terror had been superseded by
reflection, and some explanation was offered of the origin
of the various cults, the very nature of the animal seemed
to justify the veneration with which it was regarded. The
crocodile is amphibious; and Sobku was supposed to be a
crocodile, because before the creation the sovereign god
plunged recklessly into the dark waters and came forth to
form the world, as the crocodile emerges from the river
to lay its eggs upon the bank.

Most of the feudal divinities began their lives in solitary
grandeur, apart from, and often hostile to, their neighbours.
Families were assigned to them later. 1 Each appropriated

1 The existence of the Egyptian triads was discovered and denned by
CHAMPOLLION. These triads have long served as the basis upon which
modern writers have sought to establish their systems of the Egyptian
religion. Brugsch was the first who rightly attempted to replace the triad
by the Ennead, in his book Religion und Mythologie der alien ^gypter. The
process of forming local triads, as here set forth, was first pointed out by

THE TRIADS

141

two companions and formed a trinity, or as it is generally
called, a triad. But there were several kinds of triads. In
nornes subject to a god, the local deity was frequently con
tent with one wife and one son ; but often he was united to
two goddesses, who were at once his sisters and his wives
according to the national custom. Thus,
Thot of Hermopolis possessed himself
of a harem consisting of Seshait-Safk-
hltabui and Nahmauit. Tumu divided
the homage of the inhabitants of Helio-
polis with Nebthofcpifc and with lusasit.
Khnutnu seduced and married the two
fairies of the neighbouring cataract
Anukit the constrainer, who compresses
the Nile between its rocks at PhilaB and
at Syene, and Satlt the archeress, who
shoots forth the current straight and
swift as an arrow. 1 Where a goddess L|
reigned over a norne, the triad was
completed by two male deities, a divine
consort and a divine son. Nit of Sais had taken for
her husband Osiris of Mendes, and borne him a lion s
whelp, Ari-hos-nofir. 2 Hathor of Denderah had com-

MASPERO (Etudes de Mythologie et d Archeologie figyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 269,
et seq.).

1 MASPERO, tudes de Mythologie et d Archeologie jZgyptiennes, vol. ii.
p. 273, et seq.

2 Arihosnofir means the lion whose gaze has a beneficent fascination. He
also goes under the name of Tutu, which seems as though it should be
translated " the bounding," a mere epithet characterizing one gait of the
lion-god s.

N!T OF SAIS.

142

THE GODS OF EGYPT

pleted her household with Haroeris and a younger Horus,
with the epithet of Ahi he who strikes the sistruin. 1 A

triad containing two goddesses pro
duced no legitimate offspring, and was
unsatisfactory to a people who regarded
the lack of progeny as a curse from
heaven ; one in which the presence of
a son promised to ensure the perpetuity
of the race was more in keeping with
the idea of a blessed and prosperous
family, as that of gods should be.
Triads of the former kind were there
fore almost everywhere broken up into
two new triads, each containing a
divine father, a divine mother, and a
divine son. Two fruitful households
arose from the barren union of Thot
with Safkhltabui and Nahmauit : one
composed of Thot, Safkhitabui, and
Harnubi, the golden sparrow-hawk ; 3 into the other

LMHOTPU.

1 BRUGSCH explains the name of Ahi as meaning he who causes his waters
to rise, and recognizes this personage as being, among other things, a form of
the Nile. The interpretation offered by myself is borne out by the many
scenes representing the child of Hathor playing upon the sistrum and the
mondit. Moreover, ahi, ahit is an invariable title of the priests and
priestesses whose office it is, during religious ceremonies, to strike the
sistrum, and that other mystic musical instrument, the sounding whip called
mondit.

2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze statuette encrusted with gold,
in the Gizeh Museum. The seat is alabaster, and of modern manufacture.

3 This somewhat rare triad, noted by WILKINSON, is sculptured on the
wall of a chamber in the Turah quarries.

THE TRIADS

143

i f j\&gt;" i
\f/

Nahrnauit and her nursling Nofirhoru entered. The persons
united with the old feudal divinities in order to form triads
were not all of the same class. Goddesses,
especially, were made to order, and might
often be described as grammatical, so ob
vious is the linguistic device to which they
owe their being. From Ra, Amon, Horus,
Sobku, female Bas, Amons, Horuses, and
Sobkus were derived, by the addition of
the regular feminine affix to the primitive
masculine names Rait, Amonit, Horit,
Sobklt. 1 In the same way, detached cog
nomens of divine fathers were embodied
in divine sons. Imhotpu, " he who comes
in peace," was merely one of the epithets
of Phtah before he became incarnate as
the third member of the Memphite triad. 2
In other cases, alliances were contracted
between divinities of ancient stock, but
natives of different nomes, as in the case of
Isis of Buto and the Mendesian Osiris ; of
Haroeris of Edfu and Hathor of Denderah.

1 MASPERO, Etudes de Mythologie cl d Arche ologie
Eyyptienries, vol. ii. pp. 7, 8, 256.

2 Imhotpu, the Imouthes of the Greeks, and by them identified with
^Esculapius, was discovered by SALT, and his name was first translated as
Tie who comes with offering. The translation, Tie who comes in peace, proposed
by E. de Rouge, is now universally adopted. Imhotpu did not take form
until the time of the New Empire ; his great popularity at Memphis and
throughout Egypt dates from the Saite and Greek periods.

3 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze statuette incrusted with gold,
in the Gizeh Museum.

144 THE GODS OP EGYPT

In the same manner Sokhit of Letopolis and Bastlt of
Bubastis were appropriated as wives to Phtah of Memphis,
Nofirtumu being represented as his son by both unions. 1
These improvised connections were generally determined
by considerations of vicinity; the gods of conterminous
principalities were married as the children of kings of two
adjoining kingdoms are married, to form or to consolidate
relations, and to establish bonds of kinship between rival
powers whose unremitting hostility would mean the swift
ruin of entire peoples.

The system of triads, begun in primitive times and con
tinued unbrokenly up to the last days of Egyptian poly
theism, far from in any way lowering the prestige of the
feudal gods, was rather the means of enhancing it in the
eyes of the multitude. Powerful lords as the new-comers
might be at home, it was only in the strength of an
auxiliary title that they could enter a strange city, and
then only on condition of submitting to its religious law.
Hathor, supreme at Denderah, shrank into insignificance
before Haroeris at Edfu, and there retained only the some
what subordinate part of a wife in the house of her husband. 2
On the other hand, Haroeris when at Denderah descended
from the supreme rank, and was nothing more than the

1 Originally, Nofirtumu appears to have been the son of cat or lioness-
headed goddesses, Bastit and Sokhit, and from them he may have inherited
the lion s head with which he is often represented. His name shows him to
have been in the first place an incarnation of Atuinu, but he was affiliated
to the god Phtah of Memphis when that god became the husband of his
mothers, and preceded Imhotpu as the third personage in the oldest
Memphite triad.

2 Each year, and at a certain time, the goddess came in high state to
spend a few days in the great temple of Edfu, with her husband Haroeris,

THEIR HUMAN NATURE 145

almost useless consort of the lady Hathor. His name came

first in invocations of the triad because of his position

therein as husband and father ; but this was simply a

concession to the propriety of etiquette, and even though

named in second place, Hathor was none

the less the real chief of Denderah and of

its divine family. 1 Thus, the principal

personage in any triad was always the one

who had been patron of the nome previous

to the introduction of the triad : in some

places the father-god, and in others the

mother-goddess. The son in a divine triad

had of himself but limited authority. When

Isis and Osiris were his parents, he was

generally an infant Horus, naked, or simply

adorned with necklaces and bracelets ; a

thick lock of hair depended from his temple,

IIORCS, SON OF ISIS. 1

and his mother squatting on her heels, or

else sitting, nursed him upon her knees, offering him

1 The part played by Haroeris at Denderah was so inconsiderable that
the triad containing him is not to be found in the temple. " In all our four
volumes of plates, the triad is not once represented, and this is the more
remarkable since at Thebes, at Memphis, at Philse, at the cataracts, at
Elephantine, at Edfu, among all the data which one looks to find in temples,
the triad is most readily distinguished by the visitor. But we must not
therefore conclude that there was no triad in this case. The triad of Edfu
consists of Hor-Hut, Hathor, and Hor-Sam-ta-ui. The triad of Denderah
contains Hathor, Hor-Hut, and Hor-Sam-ta-ui. The difference is obvious.
At Edfu, the male principle, as represented by Hor-Hut, takes the first
place, whereas the first person at Denderah is Hathor, who represents the
female principle" (MAEIETTE, Denderah, Texte, pp. 80, 81).

: Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a statuette in the Gizeh Museum
(MARIETTE, Album da Muse e de Boulaq, pi. 4).

VOL. I, L

146 THE GODS OF EGYPT

her breast. 1 Even in triads where the son was sup
posed to have attained to man s estate, he held the
lowest place, and there was enjoined upon him the same
respectful attitude towards his parents as is observed
by children of human race in the presence of theirs.
He took the lowest place at all solemn receptions, spoke
only with his parents permission, acted only by their
command and as the agent of their will. Occasionally he
was vouchsafed a character of his own, and filled a definite
position, as at Memphis, where Imhotpu was the patron of
science. 2 But, generally, he was not considered as having
either office or marked individuality ; his being was but a
feeble reflection of his father s, and possessed neither life
nor power except as derived from him. Two such con
tiguous personalities must needs have been confused, and,
as a matter of fact, were so confused as to become at length
nothing more than two aspects of the same god, who
united in his own person degrees of relationship mutually
exclusive of each other in a human family. Father,
inasmuch as he was the first member of the triad ; son,
by virtue of being its third member ; identical with himself
in both capacities, he was at once his own father, his own
son, and the husband of his mother.

Gods, like men, might be resolved into at least two

1 For representations of Harpocrates, the child Horus, see LANZONE,
Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia, pis. ccxxvii., ccxxviii., and particularly pi. cccx.
2, where there is a scene in which the young god, represented as a sparrow-
hawk, is nevertheless sucking the breast of his mother Isis with his beak.

2 Hence he is generally represented as seated, or squatting, and
attentively reading a papyrus roll, which lies open upon his knees ; cf . the
illustration on p. 142.

THE SOUL

147

elements, soul and body ; l but in Egypt, the conception
of the soul varied in different times and in different schools.
It might be an insect butterfly, bee, or praying mantis; 2
or a bird the ordinary sparrow-hawk, the human-headed
sparrow-hawk, a heron or a crane bi, bai whose wings
enabled it to pass rapidly through space ; 3 or the black
shadow khaibit that is attached to every body, but
which death sets free,
and which thenceforward
leads an independent ex
istence, so that it can
move about at will, and
go out into the open sun
light. Finally, it might
be a kind of light shadow,
like a reflection from the
surface of calm water, or

THE BLACK SHADOW COMIXG OUT INTO THE
SUXUGHT. 4

1 In one of the Pyramid texts, Sahu-Orion, the wild hunter, captures the
gods, slaughters and disembowels them, cooks their joints, their haunches,
their legs, in his burning cauldrons, and feeds on their souls as well as on
their bodies. A god was not limited to a single body and a single soul ; we
know from several texts that Ra had seven souls and fourteen doubles.

2 Mr. LEPAGE-RENOUF supposes that the soul may have been considered
as being a butterfly at times, as in Greece. M. LEFEBUBE thinks that it
must sometimes have been incarnate as a wasp I should rather say a bee
or a praying mantis.

The simple sparrow-hawk ^ is chiefly used to denote the soul of a
god ; the human-headed sparrow-hawk V^ , the heron, or the crane **&gt;. is
used indifferently for human or divine souls. . It is from HOE APOLLO that
we learn this symbolic significance of the sparrow-hawk and the pronuncia
tion of the name of the soul as bai.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from NAVILLE S Das Thebanische Todtenbuch,
vol. i. pi. civ. PC.

148

THE GODS OF EGYPT

from a polished mirror, the living and coloured projec
tion of the human figure, a double ka reproducing
in minutest detail the complete image of the object

THE AUGUST SOCLS OF OSIRIS AND HORUS I&gt;f ADORATION BEFORE THE SOLAR DISK. 1

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by D0MICHBK, of a scene
on the cornice of the front room of Osiris on the terrace of the great temple
of Denderah. The soul on the left belongs to Horus, that on the right to
Osiris, lord of Amentit. Each bears upon its head the group of tall feathers
which is characteristic of figures of Anhuri (cf. p. 103).

THEIR BODIES 149

or the person to whom it belonged. 1 The soul, the
shadow, the double of a god, was in no way essentially
different from the soul, shadow, or double of a man ; his
body, indeed, was moulded out of a more rarefied
substance, and generally invisible, but endowed with the
same qualities, and subject to the same imperfections
as ours. The gods, therefore, on the whole, were more
ethereal, stronger, more powerful, better fitted to com
mand, to enjoy, and to suffer than ordinary men, but they
were still men. They had bones, 2 muscles, flesh, blood;
they were hungry and ate, they were thirsty and drank ;
our passions, griefs, joys, infirmities, were also theirs. The
sa, a mysterious fluid, circulated throughout their members,
and carried with it health, vigour, and life. They were not
all equally charged with it ; some had more, others less,
their energy being in proportion to the amount which they
contained. The better supplied willingly gave of their
superfluity to those who lacked it, and all could readily
transmit it to mankind, this transfusion being easily
accomplished in the temples. The king, or any ordinary
man who wished to be thus impregnated, presented himself
before the statue of the god, and squatted at its feet with
his back towards it. The statue then placed its right hand

1 The nature of the double has long been misapprehended by Egyptolo
gists, who had even made its name into a kind of pronominal form. That
nature was publicly and almost simultaneously announced in 1878, first by
MASPERO, and directly afterwards by LEPAGK-RENOUF.

2 For example, the text of the Destruction of Men, and other documents,
teach us that the flesh of the aged sun had become gold, and his bones silver.
The blood of Ra is mentioned in the Book of the Dead, as well as the blood
of Isis and of other divinities.

150

THE GODS OF EGYPT

upon the nape of his neck, and by making passes, caused
the fluid to flow from it, and to accumulate in him as in a
receiver. This rite was of temporary efficacy only, and
required frequent renewal in order that its benefit might be

THE KING AFTER HIS CORONATION RECEIVING THE IMPOSITION OF THE SA. 1

1 Drawn by Boudier from a photograph by M. Gayet, taken in 1889, of
a scene in the hypostyle hall at Luxor. This illustration shows the relative
positions of prince and god. Amon, after having placed the pschent upon
the head of the Pharaoh Amendthes III., who kneels before him, proceeds to
impose the sa.

THE DEATH OF MEN AND GODS 151

maintained. By using or transmitting it the gods them
selves exhausted their sa of life ; and the less vigorous
replenished themselves from the stronger, while the latter
went to draw fresh fulness from a mysterious pond in
the northern sky, called the "pond of the Sa." l Divine
bodies, continually recruited by the influx of this magic
fluid, preserved their vigour far beyond the term allotted to
the bodies of men and beasts. Age, instead of quickly
destroying them, hardened and transformed them into
precious metals. Their bones were changed to silver, their
flesh to gold ; their hair, piled up and painted blue, after
the manner of great chiefs, was turned into lapis-lazuli. 2
This transformation of each into an animated statue did
not altogether do away with the ravages of time. Decrepi
tude was no less irremediable with them than with men,
although it came to them more slowly ; when the sun had
grown old " his mouth trembled, his drivelling ran down
to earth, his spittle dropped upon the ground."

None of the feudal gods had escaped this destiny ; for
them as for mankind the day came when they must leave

1 It is thus that in the Tale of the Daughter of the Prince of Balchtan we
find that one of the statues of the Theban Konsu supplies itself with sa
from another statue representing one of the most powerful forms of the god.
The pond of Sa, whither the gods go to draw the magic fluid, is mentioned
in the Pyramid texts.

2 Cf. the text of the Destruction of Men (11. 1, 2) referred to above, where
age produces these transformations in the body of the sun. This changing
of the bodies of the gods into gold, silver, and precious stones, explains why
the alchemists, who were disciples of the Egyptians, often compared the
transmutation of metals to the metamorphosis of a genius or of a divinity :
they thought by their art to hasten at will that which was the slow work
of nature.

152 THE GODS OF EGYPT

the city and go forth to the tornb. 1 The ancients long
refused to believe that death was natural and inevitable.
They thought that life, once began, might go on
indefinitely : if no accident stopped it short, why should
it cease of itself? And so men did not die in Egypt;
they were assassinated. The murderer often belonged to
this world, and was easily recognized as another man, an
animal, some inanimate object such as a stone loosened
from the hillside, a tree which fell upon the passer-by and
crushed him. But often too the murderer was of the
unseen world, and so w r as hidden, his presence being
betrayed in his malignant attacks only. He was a god, an
evil spirit, a disembodied soul who slily insinuated itself
into the living man, or fell upon him with irresistible
violence illness being a struggle between the one possessed
and the power which possessed him. As soon as the
former succumbed he was carried away from his own
people, and his place knew him no more. But had all
ended for him with the moment in which he had ceased
to breathe ? As to the body, no one was ignorant of
its natural fate. It quickly fell to decay, and a few
years sufficed to reduce it to a skeleton. And as for
the skeleton, in the lapse of centuries that too was

1 The idea of the ir^ 7 itable death of the gods is expressed in other places
as well as in a passage of the eighth chapter of the Book of the Dead
(NAVILLE S edition), which has not to my knowledge hitherto been noticed :
" I am that Osiris in the West, and Osiris knoweth his day in which he shall
be no more ; " that is to say, the day of his death when he will cease to
exist. All the gods, Atuinu, Horus, Ra, Thot, Phtah, Khnumu, are
represented under the forms of mummies, and this implies that they are
dead. Moreover, their tombs were pointed out in several places in Egypt.

THE OLDEST BURIALS 153

disintegrated and became a mere train of dust, to be blown
away by the first breath of wind. The soul might have
a longer career and fuller fortunes, but these were believed
to be dependent upon those of the body, and commensurate
with them. Every advance made in the process of de
composition robbed the soul of some part of itself; its
consciousness gradually faded until nothing was left but
a vague and hollow form that vanished altogether when
the corpse had entirely disappeared. From an early date
the Egyptians had endeavoured to arrest this gradual
destruction of the human organism, and their first effort
to this end naturally was directed towards the preservation
of the body, since without it the existence of the soul
could not be ensured. It was imperative that during
that last sleep, which for them was fraught with such
terrors, the flesh should neither become decomposed nor
turn to dust, that it should be free from offensive odour
and secure from predatory worms.

They set to work, therefore, to discover how to preserve
it. The oldest burials which have as yet been found prove
that these early inhabitants were successful in securing the
permanence of the body for a few decades only. When
one of them died, his son, or his nearest relative, care
fully washed the corpse in water impregnated with an
astringent or aromatic substance, such as natron or some
solution of fragrant gums, and then fumigated it with
burning herbs and perfumes which were destined to over
power, at least temporarily, the odour of death. 1 Having

1 This is to be gathered from the various Pyramid texts relating to the
purification by water and to fumigation : the pains taken to secure material

154 THE GODS OF EGYPT

taken these precautions, they placed the body in the grave,
sometimes entirely naked, sometimes partially covered
with its ordinary garments, or sewn up in a closely fitting
gazelle skin. The dead man was placed on his left side,
lying north and south with his face to the east, in some
cases on the bare ground, in others on a mat, a strip of
leather or a fleece, in the position of a child in the foetal
state. The knees were sharply bent at an angle of 45
with the thighs, while the latter were either at right
angles with the body, or drawn up so as almost to touch
the elbows. The hands are sometimes extended in front
of the face, sometimes the arms are folded and the hands
joined on the breast or neck. In some instances the
legs are bent upward in such a fashion that they almost
lie parallel with the trunk. The deceased could only be
made to assume this position by a violent effort, and in many
cases the tendons and the flesh had to be cut to facilitate
the operation. The dryness of the ground selected for these
burial-places retarded the corruption of the flesh for a
long time, it is true, but only retarded it, and so did not
prevent the soul from being finally destroyed. Seeing decay
could not be prevented, it was determined to accelerate
the process, by taking the flesh from the bones before
interment. The bodies thus treated are often incomplete ;
the head is missing, or is detached from the neck and
laid in another part of the pit, or, on the other hand,
the body is not there, and the head only is found in

cleanliness, described in these formulas, were primarily directed towards the
preservation of the bodies subjected to these processes, and further to the
perfecting of the souls to which these bodies had been united.

MUTILATIONS 155

the grave, genera] ly placed apart on a brick, a heap of
stones, or a layer of cut flints. The forearms and the
hands were subjected to the same treatment as the head.
In many cases no trace of them appears, in others they
are deposited by the side of the skull or scattered about
haphazard. Other mutilations are frequently met with;
the ribs are divided and piled up behind the body, the
limbs are disjointed or the body is entirely dismembered,
and the fragments arranged upon the ground or enclosed
together in an earthenware cist.

These precautions were satisfactory in so far as they
ensured the better preservation of the more solid parts
of the human frame, but the Egyptians felt this result
was obtained at too great a sacrifice. The human organism
thus deprived of all flesh was not only reduced to half
its bulk, but what remained had neither unity, consistency,
nor continuity. It was not even a perfect skeleton with
its constituent parts in their relative places, but a mere
mass of bones with no connecting links. This drawback,
it is true, was remedied by the artificial reconstruction in
the tomb of the individual thus completely dismembered
in the course of the funeral ceremonies. The bones were
laid in their natural order ; those of the feet at the bottom,
then those of the leg, trunk, and arms, and finally the
skull itself. But the superstitious fear inspired by the
dead man, particularly of one thus harshly handled, and
particularly the apprehension that he might revenge
himself on his relatives for the treatment to which they
had subjected him, often induced them to make this
restoration intentionally incomplete. When they had

156 THE GODS OF EGYPT

reconstructed the entire skeleton, they refrained from placing
the head in position, or else they suppressed one or all
of the vertebrae of the spine, so that the deceased should
be unable to rise and go forth to bite and harass the
living. Having taken this precaution, they nevertheless
felt a doubt whether the soul could really enjoy life so
long as one half only of the body remained, and the
other was lost for ever : they therefore sought to discover
the means of preserving the fleshy parts in addition to
the bony framework of the body. It had been observed
that when a corpse had been buried in the desert, its
skin, speedily desiccated and hardened, changed into a
case of blackish parchment beneath which the flesh
slowly wasted away, 1 and the whole frame thus remained
intact, at least in appearance, while its integrity ensured
that of the soul. An attempt was made by artificial means
to reproduce the conservative action of the sand, and,
without mutilating the body, to secure at will that in
corruptibility without which the persistence of the soul
was but a useless prolongation of the death-agony. It
was the god Anubis the jackal lord of sepulture who
was supposed to have made this discovery. He cleansed
the body of the viscera, those parts which most rapidly
decay, saturated it with salts and aromatic substances,
protected it first of all with the hide of a beast, and
over this laid thick layers of linen. The victory the god
had thus gained over corruption was, however, far from

1 Such was the appearance of the bodies of Coptic monks of the sixth,
eighth, and ninth centuries, which I found in the convent cemeteries of
Contra-Syene, Taud, and Akhmim, right in the midst of the desert.

THEIR MUMMIFICATION 157

being a complete one. The bath in which the dead man
was immersed could not entirely preserve the softer parts
of the body : the chief portion of them was dissolved,
and what remained after the period of saturation was so
desiccated that its bulk was seriously diminished.

When any human being had been submitted to this
process, he emerged from it a mere skeleton, over which
the skin remained tightly drawn: these shrivelled limbs,
sunken chest, grinning features, yellow and blackened skin
spotted by the efflorescence of the embalmer s salts, were
not the man himself, but rather a caricature of what he
had been. As nevertheless he was secure against im
mediate destruction, the Egyptians described him as
furnished with his shape ; henceforth he had been purged
of all that was evil in him, and he could face with
tolerable security whatever awaited him in the future.
The art of Anubis, transmitted to the embalmers and
employed by them from generation to generation, had, by
almost eliminating the corruptible part of the body without
destroying its outward appearance, arrested decay, if not
for ever, at least for an unlimited period of time. If there
were hills at hand, thither the mummied dead were still
borne, partly from custom, partly because the dryness of
the air and of the soil offered them a further chance of
preservation. In districts of the Delta where the hills
were so distant as to make it very costly to reach them,
advantage was taken of the smallest sandy islet rising
above the marshes, and there a cemetery was founded.
Where this resource failed, the mummy was fearlessly
entrusted to the soil itself, but only after being placed

158 THE GODS OF EGYPT

within a sarcophagus of hard stone, whose lid and trough,
hermetically fastened together with cement, prevented the
penetration of any moisture. Eeassured on this point,
the soul followed the body to the tomb, and there dwelt
with it as in its eternal house, upon the confines of the
visible and invisible worlds.

Here the soul kept the distinctive character and ap
pearance which pertained to it "upon the earth: as
it had been a "double before death, so it remained a
double after it, able to perform all functions of animal
life after its own fashion. It moved, went, came, spoke,
breathed, accepted pious homage, but without pleasure,
and as it were mechanically, rather from an instinctive
horror of annihilation than from any rational desire for
immortality. Unceasing regret for the bright world
which it had left disturbed its mournful and inert
existence. " my brother, withhold not thyself from
drinking and from eating, from drunkenuess, from love,
from all enjoyment, from following thy desire by night
and by day; put not sorrow within thy heart, for what
are the years of a man upon earth ? The West is a land
of sleep and of heavy shadows, a place wherein its in
habitants, when once installed, slumber on in their
mummy-forms, never more waking to see their brethren ;
never more to recognize their fathers or their mothers,
with hearts forgetful of their wives and children. The
living water, which earth giveth to all who dwell upon
it, is for me but stagnant and dead ; that water floweth
to all who are on earth, while for me it is but liquid
putrefaction, this water that is mine. Since I came into

FATE AFTER DEATH 159

this funereal valley I know not where nor what I am.
Give me to drink of running water ! . . . Let me be
placed by the edge of the water with my face to the
North, that the breeze may caress me and my heart be
refreshed from its sorrow." By day the double remained
concealed within the tomb. If it went forth by night,
it was from no capricious or sentimental desire to revisit
the spots where it had led a happier life. Its organs
needed nourishment as formerly did those of its body,
and of itself it possessed nothing " but hunger for food,
thirst for drink." 1 Want and misery drove it from its
retreat, and flung it back among the living. It prowled
like a marauder about fields and villages, picking up and
greedily devouring whatever it might find on the ground
broken meats which had been left or forgotten, house
and stable refuse and, should these meagre resources
fail, even the most revolting dung and excrement. 2 This
ravenous sceptre had not the dim and misty form, the
long shroud of floating draperies of our modern phantoms,
but a precise and definite shape, naked, or clothed in

1 Teii, 11. 74, 75. " Hateful unto Teti is hunger, and he eateth it not ;
hateful unto Teti is thirst, nor hath he drunk it." We see that the
Egyptians made hunger and thirst into two substances or beings, to be
swallowed as food is swallowed, but whose effects were poisonous unless
counteracted by the immediate absorption of more satisfying sustenance.

2 King Teti, when distinguishing his fate from that of the common dead,
stated that he had abundance of food, and hence was not reduced to so
pitiful an extremity. " Abhorrent unto Teti is excrement, Teti rejecteth
urine, and Teti abhorreth that which is abominable in him ; abhorrent unto
him is faecal matter and he eateth it not, hateful unto Teti is liquid filth."
(Teti, 11. 68, 69). The same doctrine is found in several places in the Book
of the Dead,

160 THE GODS OP EGYPT

the garments which it had worn while yet upon earth,
and emitting a pale light, to which it owed the name
of Luminous KM, Khun, 1 The double did not allow
its family to forget it, but used all the means at its
disposal to remind them of its existence. It entered
their houses and their bodies, terrified them waking and
sleeping by its sudden apparitions, struck them down
with disease or madness, 2 and would even suck their
blood like the modern vampire. One effectual means
there was, and one only, of escaping or preventing these
visitations, and this lay in taking to the tomb all the
various provisions of which the double stood in need,
and for which it visited their dwellings. Funerary sacri
fices and the regular cultus of the dead originated in
the need experienced for making provision for the sus
tenance of the manes after having secured their lasting

1 The name of luminous was at first so explained as to make the light
wherewith souls were clothed, into a portion of the divine light. In my
opinion the idea is a less abstract one, and shows that, as among many other
nations, so with the Egyptians the soul was supposed to appear as a kind of
pale flame, or as emitting a glow analogous to the phosphorescent halo which
is seen by night about a piece of rotten wood, or putrefying fish. This
primitive conception may have subsequently faded, and khd the glorious one,
one of the manes, may have become one of those flattering names by which
it was thought necessary to propitiate the dead ; it then came to have that
significance of resplendent with light which is ordinarily attributed to it.

2 The incantations of which the Leyden Papyrus published by PLBYTE is
full are directed against dead men or dead women who entered into one of
the living to give him the migraine, and violent headaches. Another Leyden
Papyrus, briefly analyzed by CHABAS, and translated by MASPERO, contains
the complaint, or rather the formal act of requisition of a husband whom the
luminous of his wife returned to torment in his home, without any just cause
for such conduct.

FOOD FOR THE DEAD

161

existence by the mummification of their bodies. 1 Gazelles
and oxen were brought and sacrificed at the door of the
tomb chapel ; the haunches, heart, and breast of each

SACRIFICING TO THE DEAD IX THE TOMB CHAPEL. 2

1 Several chapters of the Book of the Dead consist of directions for
giving food to that part of man which survives his death, e.g. chap, cv.,
" Chapter for providing food for the double " (NAVILLE S edition, pi. cxvii.),
and chap, cvi., " Chapter for giving daily abundance unto the deceased, in
Memphis " (NAVILLE S edition, pi. cxviii.).

2 Stela of Antuf I., Prince of Thebes, drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a
photograph taken by Emil Brugsch-Bey. Below, servants and relations are

VOL. I. M

162

THE GODS OF EGYPT

victim being presented and heaped together upon the
ground, that there the dead might find them when they
began to be hungry. Vessels of beer or wine, great jars
of fresh water, purified with natron, or perfumed, were
brought to them that they might drink their fill at
pleasure, and by such voluntary tribute men bought
their good will, as in daily life they bought that of
some neighbour too powerful to be opposed.

The gods were spared none of the anguish and none of
the perils which death so plentifully bestows upon men.
Their bodies suffered change and gradually perished until
nothing was left of them. Their souls, like human souls,
were only the representatives of their bodies, and gradually
became extinct if means of arresting the natural tendency
to decay were not found in time. Thus, the same
necessity that forced men to seek the kind of sepulture
which gave the longest term of existence to their souls,
compelled the gods to the same course. At first, they
were buried in the hills, and one of their oldest titles
describes them as those "who are upon the sand," 1 safe

bringing the victims and cutting up the ox at the door of the tomb. In the
middle is the dead man, seated under his pavilion and receiving the sacrifice :
an attendant offers him drink, another brings him the haunch of an ox, a
third a basket and two jars ; provisions fill the whole chamber. Behind
Antuf stand two servants, the one fanning his master, and the second
offering him his staff and sandals. The position of the door, which is in the
lowest row of the scenes, indicates that what is represented above it takes
place within the tomb.

1 In the Book of Knowing that which is in Hades, for the fourth and fifth
hours of the night, we have the description of the sandy realm of Sokaris and
of the gods Hiriil Shditu-senti, who are on their sand. Elsewhere in the
same book we have a cynocephalus upon its sand, and the gods of the eighth

MODES OP EXISTENCE 163

from putrefaction ; afterwards, when the art of embalm
ing had been discovered, the gods received the benefit
of the new invention and were mummified. Each nome
possessed the mummy and the tomb of its dead god : at
Thinis there was the mummy and the tomb of Anhuri,
the mummy of Osiris at Mendes, the mummy of Tumu
at Heliopolis. 1 In some of the nomes the gods did not
change their names in altering the mode of their ex
istence : the deceased Osiris remained Osiris ; Nit
and Hathor when dead were still Nit and Hathor,
at Sai s and at Denderah. But Phtah of Memphis
became Sokaris by dying ; Uapuaitu, the jackal of Siut,
was changed into Anubis ; 2 and when his disk had dis
appeared at evening, Anhuri, the sunlit sky of Thinis,
was Khontamentit, Lord of the West, until the following
day. That bliss which we dream of enjoying in the
world to come was not granted to the gods any more
than to men. Their bodies were nothing but inert larvas,

hour are also mysterious gods who are on their sand. Wherever these
personages are represented in the vignettes, the Egyptian artist has care
fully drawn the ellipse painted in yellow and sprinkled with red, which is
the conventional rendering of sand, and sandy districts.

1 The sepulchres of Tumu, Khopri, Ra, Osiris, and in each of them the
heap of sand hiding the body, are represented in the tomb of Seti I., as also
the four rams in which the souls of the god are incarnate. The tombs of the
gods were known even in Roman times.

To my mind, at least, this is an obvious conclusion from the monu
ments of Siut, in which the jackal god is called tTapuaitu, as the living god,
lord of the city, and Anupu, master of embalming or of the Oasis, lord of
Ra-qririt, inasmuch as he is god of the dead. Ra-qririt, the door of the stone,
was the name which the people of Siut gave to their necropolis and to the
infernal domain of their god.

104

THE GODS OF EGYPT

"with unmoving heart," 1 weak and shrivelled limbs, un
able to stand upright were it not that the bandages in
which they were swathed stiffened them into one rigid
block. Their hands and heads alone were free, and
were of the green or black shades of putrid flesh. Their

doubles, like those of men, both
dreaded and regretted the light.
All sentiment was extinguished
by the hunger from which they
suffered, and gods who were
noted for their compassionate
kindness when alive, became
pitiless and ferocious tyrants in
the tomb. When once men
were bidden to the presence of
Sokaris, Khontamentit, or even
of Osiris, " mortals come terri
fying their hearts with fear of
the god, and none dareth to
look him in the face either
among gods or men ; for him
the great are as the small. He
spareth not those who love him ;
he beareth away the child from its mother, and the old
man who walketh on his way ; full of fear, all creatures

1 This is the characteristic epithet for the dead Osiris, Urdu-hit, he whose
heart is unmoving, he whose heart no longer beats, and who has therefore
ceased to live.

2 Drawing by Faucher-Gudin of a bronze statuette of the Saite period,
found in the department of Herault, at the end of a gallery in an ancient
mine.

PUT .VII AS A MUMMY.-

DEAD GODS THE GODS OF THE DEAD 165

make supplication before him, but he turneth not his
face towards them." Only by the unfailing payment of
tribute, and by feeding him as though he were a simple
human double, could living or dead escape the* conse
quences of his furious temper. The living paid him his
dues in pomps and solemn sacrifices, repeated from year
to year at regular intervals ; but the dead bought more
dearly the protection which he deigned to extend to
them. He did not allow them to receive directly the
prayers, sepulchral meals, or offerings of kindred on
feast-days ; all that was addressed to them must first
pass through his hands. When their friends wished to
send them wine, water, bread, meat, vegetables, and
fruits, he insisted that these should first be offered and
formally presented to himself; then he was humbly
prayed to transmit them to such or such a double, whose
name and parentage were pointed out to him. He took
possession of them, kept part for his own use, and of
his bounty gave the remainder to its destined recipient.
Thus death made no change in the relative positions of
the feudal god and his worshippers. The worshipper
who called himself the amakhu of the god during life
was the subject and vassal of his mummied god even
in the tomb ; x and the god who, while living, reigned

1 The word amakhti is applied to an individual who has freely entered
the service of king or baron, and taken him for his lord : amakhu Icliir nibilf
means vassal of his lord. In the same way, each chose for himself a god
who became his patron, and to whom he owed fealty, i.e. to whom he was
amaJchil vassal. To the god he owed the service of a good vassal tribute,
sacrifices, offerings ; and to his vassal the god owed in return the service of
a suzerain protection, food, reception into his dominions and access to his

166 THE GODS OF EGYPT

over the living, after his death continued to reign over
the dead.

He dwelt in the city near the prince and in the
midst of his subjects : Ka living in Heliopolis along with
the prince of Heliopolis ; Haroeris in Edfu together with
the prince of Edfu ; Nit in Sais with the prince of Sa is.
Although none of the primitive temples have come down
to us, the name given to them in the language of the
time, shows what they originally were. A temple was
considered as the feudal mansion hdU, the house-
pir&y pi, of the god, better cared for, and more respected
than the houses of men, but not otherwise differing from
them. It was built on a site slightly raised above the
level of the plain, so as to be safe from the inundation,
and where there was no natural mound, the want was
supplied by raising a rectangular platform of earth. A
layer of sand spread uniformly on the sub-soil provided
against settlements or infiltration, and formed a bed for
the foundations of the building. 1 . This was first of all
a single room, circumscribed, gloomy, covered in by a
slightly vaulted roof, and having no opening but the
doorway, which was framed by two tall masts, whence
floated streamers to attract from afar the notice of

person. A man might be absolutely nib amakhtt, master of fealty, or,
relatively to a god, amakliti khir Osiri, the vassal of Osiris, amalchti Idilr
Phtah-Solcari, the vassal of Phtah-Sokaris.

1 This custom lasted into Grseco-Roman times, and was part of the ritual
for laying the foundations of a temple. After the king had dug out the soil
on the ground where the temple was to stand, he spread over the spot sand
mixed with pebbles and precious stones, and upon this he laid the lirst course
of stone.

THEIR TEMPLES AND IMAGES 167

worshippers ; in front of its fa9ade l was a court, fenced
in with palisading. Within the temple were pieces of
matting, low tables of stone, wood, or metal, a few
utensils for cooking the offerings, a few vessels for
containing the blood, oil, wine, and water with which
the god was every day regaled. As provisions for sacrifice
increased, the number of chambers increased with them,

THE SACKED BULL, HAPIS OR MXEVIS. Z

and rooms for flowers, perfumes, stuffs, precious vessels,
and food were grouped around the primitive abode ; until
that which had once constituted the whole temple became
no more than its sanctuary. There the god dwelt, not

1 No Egyptian temples of the first period have come down to our time,
but HERE ERMAN has very justly remarked that we have pictures of them
in several of the signs denoting the word temple in texts of the Memphite
period.

2 A sculptor s model from Tanis, now in the Gizeh Museum, drawn by
Faucher-Gudin from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. The sacred marks,
as given in the illustration, are copied from those of similar figures on stelae
of the Serapeum.

168 THE GODS OF EGYPT

only in spirit but in body, 1 and the fact that it was
incumbent upon him to live in several cities did not
prevent his being present in all of them at once. He
could divide his double, imparting it to as many separate
bodies as he pleased, and these bodies might be human
or animal, natural objects or things manufactured such
as statues of stone, metal, or wood. 2 Several of the gods
were incarnate in rams : Osiris at Mendes, Harshafitu
at Heracleopolis, Khnurnu at Elephantine. Living rams
were kept in their temples, and allowed to gratify any
fancy that came into their animal brains. Other gods
entered into bulls : Ea at Heliopolis, and, subsequently,
Phtah at Memphis, Minu at Thebes, and Mont ft at
Hermonthis. The} indicated beforehand by certain marks
such beasts as they intended to animate by their doubles,
and he who had learnt to recognize these signs was at
no loss to find a living god when the time came for
seeking one and presenting it to the adoration of
worshippers in the temple. 3 And if the statues had not

1 Thus at Denderah, it is said that the soul of Hathor likes to leave
heaven " in the form of a human-headed sparrow-hawk of lapis-lazuli,
accompanied by her divine cycle, to come and unite herself to the statue."
" Other instances," adds Mariette, " would seem to justify us in thinking
that the Egyptians accorded a certain kind of life to the statues and images
which they made, and believed (especially in connection with tombs) that
the spirit haunted images of itself."

2 MASPEEO, JZtudes de Mytliolocjie ct cPArcJie ologie figyptiennes, vol. i. p. 77,
et seq. ; Arclieologie figyptienne, pp. 106, 107; English edition, pp. 105, 106.
This notion of actuated statues seemed so strange and so unworthy of the
wisdom of the Egyptians that Egyptologists of the rank of M. DE ROUGE
have taken in an abstract and metaphorical sense expressions referring
to the automatic movements of divine images.

3 The bulls of Ra and of Phtah, the Mnevis and the Hapis, are known to

OFFERINGS TO THE SERPENT

169

the same ontward appearance of actual life as the animals,
they none the less concealed beneath their rigid exteriors
an intense energy of life which betrayed itself on occasion
by gestures or by words. They thus indicated, in language
which their servants could understand, the will of the
gods, or their opinion on the events of the day; they
answered questions put to them in accordance with

OPEN-AIR OFFERINGS TO THE SERPENT. 1

prescribed forms, and sometimes they even foretold the
future. Each temple held a fairly large number of statues

us from classic writers. The bull of Minu at Thebes may be seen in the
procession of the god as represented on monuments of Ramses II. and
Ramses III. Bakhu (called Bakis by the Greeks), the bull of Hermonthis,
is somewhat rare, and mainly represented upon a few later stelae in the
Gizeh Museum ; it is chiefly known from the texts. The particular signs
distinguishing each of these sacred animals have been determined both on
the authority of ancient writers, and from examination of the figured
monuments ; the arrangement and outlines of some of the black markings of
the Hapis are clearly shown in the illustration on p. 167.

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken in the tomb of
Khopirkerisonbu. The inscription behind the uraeus states that it represents
Ranuit the August, lady of the double granary.

170 THE GODS OF EGYPT

representing so many embodiments of the local divinity
and of the members of his triad. These latter shared,
albeit in a lesser degree, all the honours and all the
prerogatives of the master; they accepted sacrifices,
answered prayers, and, if needful, they prophesied. They
occupied either the sanctuary itself, or one of the halls
built about the principal sanctuary, or one of the isolated
chapels which belonged to them, subject to the suzerainty
of the feudal god. The god has his divine court to help
him in the administration of his dominions, just as a
prince is aided by his ministers in the government of his
realm.

This State religion, so complex both in principle and
in its outward manifestations, was nevertheless inadequate
to express the exuberant piety of the populace. There
were casual divinities in every nome whom the people
did not love any the less because of their inofficial
character ; such as an exceptionally high palm tree in
the midst of the desert, a rock of curious outline, a spring
trickling drop by drop from the mountain to which hunters
came to slake their thirst in the hottest hours of the day,
or a great serpent believed to be immortal, which haunted
a field, a grove of trees, a grotto, or a mountain ravine. 1
The peasants of the district brought it bread, cakes, fruits,
and thought that they could call down the blessing of
heaven upon their fields by gorging the snake with

1 It was a serpent of this kind which gave its name to the hill of Sheikh
Haridi, and the adjacent nome of the Serpent Mountain ; and though the
serpent has now turned Mussulman, he still haunts the mountain and
preserves his faculty of coming to life again every time that he is killed.

TREE AND SERPENT WORSHIP

171

offerings. Everywhere on the confines of cultivated
ground, and even at some distance from the valley, are
fine single sycamores, flourishing as though by miracle
amid the sand. Their fresh greenness is in sharp contrast
with the surrounding fawn-coloured landscape, and their
thick foliage defies the midday sun even in summer. But,
on examining the
ground in which
they grow, we soon
find that they drink
from water which
has infiltrated from
the Nile, and whose
existence is in no
wise betrayed upon
the surface of the
soil. They stand as
it were with their
feet in the river,
though no one about them suspects it. Egyptians of all
ranks counted them divine and habitually worshipped
them, 2 making them offerings of figs, grapes, cucumbers,

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a scene in the tomb of Khopirkerisonbu.
The sacred sycamore here stands at the end of a field of corn, and would
seem to extend its protection to the harvest.

2 MASPERO, Etudes de Slythologic et d ArcJiiolog e jZc/yptiennea, vol. ii.
pp. 224-227. They were represented as animated by spirits concealed
within them, but which could manifest themselves on occasion. At such
times the head or whole body of the spirit of a tree would emerge from its
trunk, and when it returned to its hiding-place the trunk reabsorbed it, or
ate it again, according to the Egyptian expression, which I have already had
occasion to quote above ; see p. 110, note 3.

THE PEASANT S OFFERING TO THE SYCAMORE.

172 THE GODS OF EGYPT

vegetables, and water in porous jars daily replenished
by good and charitable people. Passers-by drank of
the water, and requited the unexpected benefit with
a short prayer. There were several such trees in the
Memphite nome, and in the Letopolite nome from Dashdr
to Gizeh, inhabited, as every one knew, by detached
doubles of Nuit and Hathor. These combined districts
were known as the " Land of the Sycamore," a name
afterwards extended to the city of Memphis ; and their
sacred trees are worshipped at the present day both by
Mussulman and Christian fellahin. 1 The most famous
among them all, the Sycamore of the South nuliit lisit
was regarded as the living body of Hathor on earth.
Side by side with its human gods and prophetic statues,
each nome proudly advanced one or more sacred animals,
one or more magic trees. Each family, and almost every
individual, also possessed gods and fetishes, which had
been pointed out for their worship by some fortuitous
meeting with an animal or an object ; by a dream, or
by sudden intuition. They had a place in some corner of
the house, or a niche in its walls ; lamps were continually
kept burning before them, and small daily offerings were
made to them, over and above what fell to their share
on solemn feast-days. In return, they became the pro
tectors of the household, its guardians and its counsellors.
Appeal was made to them in every exigency of daily life,
and their decisions were no less scrupulously carried out

1 The tree at Matarieh, commonly called the Tree of the Virgin, seems to
me to be the successor of a sacred tree of Heliopolis in which a goddess,
perhaps Hathor, was worshipped.

SACRIFICE OF THE BULL

173

by their little circle of worshippers, than was the will of
the feudal god by the inhabitants of his principality.

The prince was the great high priest. The whole
religion of the norne rested upOD him, and originally he
himself performed its ceremonies. Of these, the chief
was sacrifice, that is to say, a banquet which it was his
duty to prepare and lay before the god with his own

THE SACRIFICE OF THE BULL. THE OFFICIATING TKIEST LASSOING THE VICTIM. 1

hands. He went out into the fields to lasso the half- wild
bull; bound it, cut its throat, skinned it, burnt part of
the carcase in front of his idol and distributed the rest
among his assistants, together with plenty of cakes, fruits,

1 Bas-relief from the temple of Seti I. at Abydos ; drawn by Boudier,
from a photograph by M. Daniel Heron. Seti I., second king of the XIX th
dynasty, is throwing the lasso ; his son, Ramses II., who is still the crown
prince, holds the bull by the tail to prevent its escaping from the slip
knot.

174 THE GODS OF EGYPT

vegetables, and wine. 1 On the occasion, the god was
present both in body and double, suffering himself to be
clothed and perfumed, eating and drinking of the best
that was set on the table before him, and putting aside
some of the provisions for future use. This was the time
to prefer requests to him, while he was gladdened and
disposed to benevolence by good cheer. He was not
without suspicion as to the reason why he was so feasted,
but he had laid down his conditions beforehand, and if
they were faithfully observed he willingly yielded to the
means of seduction brought to bear upon him. Moreover,
he himself had arranged the ceremonial in a kind of
contract formerly made with his worshippers and gradually
perfected from age to age by the piety of new generations. 2
Above all things, he insisted on physical cleanliness. The
officiating priest must carefully wash udbu his face,
mouth, hands, and body; and so necessary was this
preliminary purification considered, that from it the pro
fessional priest derived his name of uM, the washed, the
clean. 3 His costume was the archaic dress, modified

This appears from the sacrificial ritual employed in the temples up to
the last days of Egyptian paganism ; cf., for instance, the illustration on
p. 173, where the king is represented as lassoing the bull. That which in
historic times was but an image, had originally been a reality.

The most striking example of the divine institution of religious services
is furnished by the inscription relating the history of the destruction of men
in the reign of Ra, where the god, as he is about to make his final ascension
into heaven, substitutes animal for human sacrifices.

The idea of physical cleanliness comes out in such variants as iitM
totiii, " clean of both hands," found on stelae instead of the simple title ti M.
We also know, on the evidence of ancient writers, the scrupulous daily care
which Egyptian priests took of their bodies. It was only as a secondary
matter that the idea of moral purity entered into the conception of a priest.

THEORY OF PRAYER AND SACRIFICE 175

according to circumstances. During certain services, or
at certain points in the sacrifices, it was incumbent upon
him to wear sandals, the panther-skin over his shoulder,
and the thick lock of hair falling over his right ear; at
other times he must gird himself with the loin-cloth
having a jackal s tail, and take the shoes from off his
feet before proceeding with his office, or attach a false
beard to his chin. The species, hair, and age of the
victim, the way in which it was to be brought and bound,
the manner and details of its slaughter, the order to be
followed in opening its body and cutting it up, were all
minutely and unchangeably decreed. And these were
but the least of the divine exactions, and those most
easily satisfied. The formulas accompanying each act of
the sacrificial priest contained a certain number of words
whose due sequence and harmonies might not suffer the
slightest modification whatever, even from the god himself,
under penalty of losing their efficacy. They were always
recited with the same rhythm, according to a system of
chaunting in which every tone had its virtue, combined
with movements which confirmed the sense and worked
with irresistible effect : one false note, a single discord
between the succession of gestures and the utterance of
the sacramental words, any hesitation, any awkwardness
in the accomplishment of a rite, and the sacrifice was
vain.

Worship as thus conceived became a legal transaction,

The Purification Ritual for officiating priests is contained in a papyrus of
the Berlin Museum, whose analysis and table of chapters has been published
by HERB OSCAR VON LEMM, Das Ritualbuch des Ammomdienstes, p. 4, et

176 THE GODS OF EGYPT

in the course of which the god gave up his liberty in ex
change for certain compensations whose kind and value were
fixed by law. By a solemn deed of transfer the worshipper
handed over to the legal representatives of the contracting
divinity such personal or real property as seemed to him
fitting payment for the favour which he asked, or suitable
atonement for the wrong which he had done. If man
scrupulously observed the innumerable conditions with
which the transfer was surrounded, the god could not
escape the obligation of fulfilling his petition ; l but should
he omit the least of them, the offering remained with the
temple and went to increase the endowments in mortmain,
while the god was pledged to nothing in exchange. Hence
the officiating priest assumed a formidable responsibility
as regarded his fellows : a slip of memory, the slightest
accidental impurity, made him a bad priest, injurious to
himself and harmful to those worshippers who had
entrusted him with their interests before the gods.
Since it was vain to expect ritualistic perfections from a
prince constantly troubled with affairs of state, the custom
was established of associating professional priests with him,
personages who devoted all their lives to the study and
practice of the thousand formalities whose sum constituted

1 This obligation is evident from texts where, as in the poem of
Pentauitft, a king who is in danger demands from his favourite god the
equivalent in protection of the sacrifices which he has offered to that divinity,
and the gifts wherewith he has enriched him. " Have I not made unto thee
many offerings 1 " says Ramses II. to Amon. " I have filled thy temple with
my prisoners, I have built thee a mansion for millions of years. . . . Ah, if
evil is the lot of them who insult thee, good are thy purposes towards those
who honour thee, O Amon ! "

THE SERVANTS AND PROPERTY OP TEMPLES 177

the local religion. Each temple had its service of priests,
independent of those belonging to neighbouring temples,
whose members, bound to keep their hands always clean
and their voices true, were ranked according to the degrees
of a learned hierarchy. At their head was a sovereign
pontiff to direct them in the exercise of their functions.
In some places he was called the first prophet, or rather
the first servant of the god hon-nutir topi ; at Thebes he
was the first prophet of Amon, at Thinis he was the first
prophet of Anhuri. 1 But generally he bore a title appro
priate to the nature of the god whose servant he was.
The chief priest of Ea at Heliopolis, and in all the cities
which adopted the Heliopolitan form of worship, was called
Oiru mau, the master of visions, and he alone besides the
sovereign of the nome, or of Egypt, enjoyed the privilege
of penetrating into the sanctuary, of " entering into heaven
and there beholding the god " face to face. In the same
way, the high priest of Anhuri at Sebennytos was entitled
the wise and pure warrior ahutti sad mbu because his
god went armed with a pike, and a soldier god required for
his service a pontiff who should be a soldier like himself.

These great personages did not always strictly seclude
themselves within the limits of the religious domain. The
gods accepted, and even sometimes solicited, from their
worshippers, houses, fields, vineyards, orchards, slaves, and

This title of first prophet belongs to priests of the less important towns,
and to secondary divinities. If we find it employed in connection with the
Theban worship, it is because Amon was originally a provincial god, and only
rose into the first rank with the rise of Thebes and the great conquests of
the XVIII* and XIX th dynasties-

VOL. I. N

178 THE GODS OF EGYPT

fishponds, the produce of which assured .their livelihood
and the support of their temples. There was no Egyptian
who did not cherish the ambition of leaving some such
legacy to the patron god of his city, "for a monument to
himself," and as an endowment for the priests to institute
prayers and perpetual sacrifices on his behalf. 1 In course of
time these accumulated gifts at length formed real sacred
fiefs hotpu-mitir analogous to the wakfs of Mussulman
Egypt. 2 They were administered by the high priest, who,
if necessary, defended them by force against the greed of
princes or kings. Two, three, or even four classes of
prophets or hieroduli under his orders assisted him in
performing the offices of worship, in giving religious
instruction, and in the conduct of affairs. Women did not
hold equal rank with men in the temples of male deities ;
they there formed a kind of harem whence the god took his
mystic spouses, his concubines, his maidservants, the
female musicians and dancing women whose duty it was to
divert him and to enliven his feasts. But in temples of
goddesses they held the chief rank, and were called
hierodules, or priestesses, hierodules of Nlfc, hierodules of
Hathor, hierodules of Pakhifc. 3 The lower offices in the

1 As regards the Saite period, we are beginning to accumulate many
stelte recording gifts to a god of land or houses, made either by the king or
by private individuals.

2 We know from the Great Harris Papyrus to what the fortune of Amon
amounted at the end of the reign of Ramses III. ; its details may be found
in BBUGSCH, Die ^Egyptologie, pp. 271-274. Of. in NAVILLE, Bubaslis,
Eighth Memoir of the Egyptian Exploration Fund, p. 61, a calculation as to the
quantities of precious metals belonging to one of the least of the temples of
Bubastis ; its gold and silver were counted by thousands of pounds.

s Mariette remarks that priests play but a subordinate part in the

UNITY OF THE NOME GOD 179

households of the gods, as in princely households, were
held by a troop of servants and artisans : butchers to cut
the throats of the victims, cooks and pastrycooks, con
fectioners, weavers, shoemakers, florists, cellarers, water-
carriers and milk-carriers. In fact, it was a state within a
state, and the prince took care to keep its government in
his own hands, either by investing one of his children with
the titles and functions of chief pontiff, or by arrogating
them to himself. In that case, he provided against
mistakes which would have annulled the sacrifice by
associating with himself several masters of the ceremonies,
who directed him in the orthodox evolutions before the god
and about the victim, indicated the due order of gestures
and the necessary changes of costume, and prompted him
with the words of each invocation from a book or tablet
which they held in their hands. 1

In addition to its rites and special hierarchy, each of
the sacerdotal colleges thus constituted had a theology in
accordance with the nature and attributes of its god. Its
fundamental dogma affirmed the unity of the nome god,
his greatness, his supremacy over all the gods of Egypt

temple of Hathor. This fact, which surprised him, is adequately explained
by remembering that Hathor being a goddess, women take precedence over
men in a temple dedicated to her. At Sa is, the chief priest was a man, the
Harp-Tcaihl ; but the persistence with which women of the highest rank, and
even queens themselves, took the title of prophetess of Nit from the times of
the Ancient Empire shows that in this city the priestess of the goddess was
of equal, if not superior, rank to the priest.

1 The title of such a personage was Mri-habi, the man with the roll or
tablet, because of the papyrus roll, or wooden tablet containing the ritual,
which he held in his hand.

180

THE GODS OP EGYPT

and of foreign lands 1 whose existence was nevertheless
admitted, and none dreamed of denying their reality or
contesting their power. The latter also boasted of their
unity, their greatness, their supremacy ; but whatever they
were, the god of the norne was master of them all their
prince, their ruler, their king. It was he alone who
governed the world, he alone kept it in good order, he

alone had created it. Not that he
had evoked it out of nothing ; there
was as yet no concept of nothingness,
and even to the most subtle and re
fined of primitive theologians creation
was only a bringing of pre-existent
elements into play. The latent germs
of things had always existed, but they
had slept for ages and ages in the
bosom of the Nu, of the dark waters.
In fulness of time the god of each
nome drew them forth, classified them,
marshalled them according to the bent
of his particular nature, and made his
universe out of them by methods peculiarly his own. Nit
of Sa is, who was a weaver, had made the world of warp and
woof, as the mother of a family weaves her children s linen.

1 In the inscriptions all local gods bear the titles of Ndtir tid, only god ;
Sutonn&gt;Uird,Sdntird, ^ovfhjp, king of the gods ; of Nutir da nib pit, the great
god, lord of heaven, which show their pretensions to the sovereignty and to
the position of creator of the universe.

2 Drawing by Faucher-Gudin of a green enamelled statuette in ray
possession. It was from Shu that the Greeks derived their representations,
and perhaps their myth of Atlas.

SHU UPLIFTING THE SKY."

THE UPLIFTINGS OF SHU 181

Khnumu, the Nile-God of the cataracts, had gathered up
the mud of his waters and therewith moulded his creatures
upon a potter s table. In the eastern cities of the Delta
these procedures were not so simple. There it was
admitted that in the beginning earth and sky were two
lovers lost in the Nu, fast locked in each other s embrace,
the god lying beneath the goddess. On the day of creation
a new god, Shu, came forth from the primaeval waters,
slipped between the two, and seizing Nuifc with both hands,
lifted her above his head with outstretched arms. 1 Though
the starry body of the goddess extended in space her
head being to the west and her loins to the east her feet
and hands hung down to the earth. These were the four
pillars of the firmament under another form, and four gods
of four adjacent principalities were in charge of them.
Osiris, or Horus the sparrow-hawk, presided over the
southern, and Sit over the northern pillar; Thot over
that of the west, and Sapdi, the author of the zodiacal
light, over that of the east. They had divided the world
among themselves into four regions, or rather into four
" houses," bounded by those mountains which surround it,
and by the diameters intersecting between the pillars.
Each of these houses belonged to one, and to one only ;
none of the other three, nor even the sun himself, might
enter it, dwell there, or even pass through it without
having obtained its master s permission. Sibu had not

This was what the Egyptians called the uplift-ings of Shit The event
first took place at Hermopolis, and certain legends added that in order to
get high enough the god had been obliged to make use of a staircase or
mound situate in this city, and which was famous throughout Egypt.

182

THE GODS OF EGYPT

been satisfied to meet the irruption of Shu by mere passive
resistance. He had tried to struggle, and he is drawn in
the posture of a man who has just awakened out of sleep,
and is half turning on his couch before getting up. One of
his legs is stretched out, the other is bent and partly drawn
up as in the act of rising. The lower part of the body is

SHU KOKCIBLY SEPARATING SIB ft AND NUIT. 1

still unmoved, but he is raising himself with difficulty on
his left elbow, while his head droops and his right arm is
lifted towards the sky. His effort was suddenly arrested.
Rendered powerless by a stroke of the creator, Sibu
remained as if petrified in this position, the obvious
irregularities of the earth s surface being due to the painful

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a painting on the mummy-case of
Butehamon in the Turin Museum. " Shu, the great god, lord of heaven,"
receives the adoration of two ram-headed souls placed upon his right and
left.

OSIRIS AND ISIS

183

attitude in which he was stricken. His sides have since
been clothed with verdure, generations of men and animals
have succeeded each other upon his back, but without
bringing any relief to his pain ; he suffers evermore from
the violent separation of which he w r as the victim when
Nuit was torn from him, and his complaint
continues to rise to heaven night and day.

The aspect of the in
undated plains of the
Delta, of the river by
which they are furrowed
and fertilized, and of the
desert sands by which
they are threatened, had
suggested to the theo
logians of Mendes and
Buto an explanation of
the mystery of creation,
in which the feudal di
vinities of these cities
and of several others in
their neighbourhood, Osiris, Sit, and Isis, played the
principal parts. Osiris first represented the wild and
fickle Nile of primitive times ; afterwards, as those who
dwelt upon his banks learned to regulate his course,

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a specimen in blue enamelled pottery,
now in my possession.

2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a figure frequently found in Theban
mummy-cases of XXI st and XXII" 1 dynasties (WILKINSON, Manners and
Customs. 2nd edit, vol. iii. pi. xxv., No 5).

THE DIDfj OF OSIRIS. 1

THE DIDO DRESSED. 2

184 THE GODS OF EGYPT

they emphasized the kindlier side of his character and
soon transformed him into a benefactor of humanity,
the supremely good being, Ilnnofriu, Onnophris. 1 He
was lord of the principality of Didu, which lay along
the Sehennytic branch of the river between the coast
marshes and the entrance to the "Wady Tumilat, but his
domain had been divided ; and the two nornes thus formed,
namely, the ninth and sixteenth nomes of the Delta in the
Pharaonic lists, remained faithful to him, and here he
reigned without rival, at Busiris as at Mendes. His most
famous idol-form was the Didu, whether naked or clothed,
the fetish, formed of four superimposed columns, which had
given its name to the principality. 2 They ascribed life to
this Didu } and represented it with a somewhat grotesque
face, big cheeks, thick lips, a necklace round its throat,
a long flowing dress which hid the base of the columns
beneath its folds, and two arms bent across the breast,
the hands grasping one a whip and the other a crook,
symbols of sovereign authority. This, perhaps, was the

1 It has long been a dogma with Egyptologists that Osiris came from
Abydos. MASPERO has shown that from his very titles he is obviously a
native of the Delta, and more especially of Busiris and Mendes.

2 The Didu has been very variously interpreted. It has been taken for
a kind of nilometer, for a sculptor s or modeller s stand, or a painter s easel,
for an altar with four superimposed tables, or a sort of pedestal bearing four
door-lintels, for a series of four columns placed one behind another, of which
the capitals only are visible, one above the other, etc. The explanation
given in the text is that of REUVENS, who recognized the Didu as a symbolic
representation of the four regions of the world ; and of MASPERO, Etudes de
Mytlwlogie et ft Arclitologie figyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 359, note 3. According
to Egyptian theologians, it represented the spine of Osiris, preserved as a
relic in the town bearing the name of Didu, DidU.

OSIRIS-ONNOPHRIS 185

most ancient form of Osiris ; but they also represented him
as a man, and supposed him to assume the shapes of rams

OSmiS-ONNOPHRIS, WHIP AND CROOK IX HAND. 1

1 Drawn, by Boudier from a statue in green basalt found at Sakkarah,
and now in the Gizeh Museum.

186 THE GODS OF EGYPT

and bulls, 1 or even those of water-birds, such as lapwings,
herons, and cranes, which disported themselves about the
lakes of that district. 2 The goddess whom we are accustomed
to regard as inseparable from him, Isis the cow, or woman
with cow s horns, had not always belonged to him. Originally
she was an independent deity, dwelling at Buto in the midst
of the ponds of Adhu. She had neither husband nor lover,
but had spontaneously conceived and given birth to a son,
whom she suckled among the reeds a lesser Horus who
was called Harsiisit, Horus the son of Isis, to distinguish
him from Haroeris. At an early period she was married to
her neighbour Osiris, and no marriage could have been
better suited to her nature. For she personified the earth
not the earth in general, like Sibu, with its unequal
distribution of seas and mountains, deserts and cultivated
land ; but the black and luxuriant plain of the Delta, where
races of men, plants, and animals increase and multiply in
ever-succeeding generations. To whom did she owe this
inexhaustible productive energy if not to her neighbour
Osiris, to the Nile ? The Nile rises, overflows, lingers
upon the soil ; every year it is wedded to the earth, and the
earth comes forth green and fruitful from its embraces.

1 The ram of Mendes is sometimes Osiris, and sometimes the soul of
Osiris. The ancients took it for a he-goat, and to them we are indebted
for the record of its exploits. According to Manetho, the worship of
the sacred ram is not older than the time of King Kaiekhos of the second
dynasty. A Ptolemaic necropolis of sacred rams was discovered by
Mariette at Tmai el-Amdid, in the ruins of Thmuis, and some of their
sarcophagi are now in the Gizeh Museum.

2 The Bonu, the chief among these birds, is not the phoenix, as has so often
been asserted. It is a kind of heron, either the Ardea cinerea, which is
common in Egypt, or else some similar species.

THE COW-HORN HEAD-DRESS

187

The marriage of the two elements suggested that of the
two divinities ; Osiris wedded Isis and adopted the young
Horus.

ISIS, WEAEIXG THE COW-IIORX HEAD-DKESS. 1

1 Drawn by Boudier from a green basalt statue in the Gizeh Museum.
From a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.

188 THE GODS OF EGYPT

But this prolific and gentle pair were not representative

of all the phenomena of nature. The eastern part of the

Delta borders upon the solitudes of Arabia, and although it

contains several rich and fertile provinces, yet most of these

owe their existence to the arduous labour of the inhabitants,

their fertility being dependent on the daily care of man,

and on his regular distribution of the water. The moment

he suspends the struggle or relaxes his watchfulness, the

desert reclaims them and overwhelms them with sterility.

Sit was the spirit of the mountain, stone and sand, the red

and arid ground as distinguished from the moist black soil

of the valley. On the body of a lion or of a dog he bore a

fantastic head with a slender curved snout, upright and

square-cut ears; his cloven tail rose stiffly behind him,

springing from his loins like a fork. He also assumed a

human form, or retained the animal head only upon a man s

shoulders. He was felt to be cruel and treacherous, always

ready to shrivel up the harvest with his burning breath,

and to smother Egypt beneath a shroud of shifting sand.

The contrast between this evil being and the beneficent

couple, Osiris and Isis, was striking. Nevertheless, the

theologians of the Delta soon assigned a common origin to

these rival divinities of Nile and desert, red land and black.

Sibu had begotten them, Nuifc had given birth to them one

after another when the demiurge had separated her from

her husband ; and the days of their birth were the days of

creation. 1 At first each of them had kept to his own half

1 According to one legend which is comparatively old in origin, the four
children of Nuit, and Horus her grandson, were born one after another, each
on one of the intercalary days of the year. This legend was still current in
the Greek period.

SIT AND NEPHTHYS

189

of the world. Moreover Sit, who had begun by living
alone, had married, in order that he might be inferior to
Osiris in nothing. As a matter
of fact, his companion, Nephthys,
did not manifest any great
activity, and was scarcely more

NErilTIIYS, AS A WAILING WOMAN*. 1

THE GOD SIT, FIGHTING. 2

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a painted wooden statuette in my
possession, from a funeral couch found at Akhmim. On her head the
goddess bears the hieroglyph for her name ; she is kneeling at the foot of the
funeral couch of Osiris and weeps for the dead god.

2 Bronze statuette of the XX th dynasty, encrusted with gold, from the
Hoffmann collection : drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a photograph taken by

190

THE GODS OF EGYPT

than an artificial counterpart of the wife of Osiris, a
second Isis who bore no children to her hushand ; l for the
sterile desert brought barrenness to her as to all that

HEl-l

TIH

MOPOUIS.;

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j/i

e&gt;r

LTA-

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nr-e^ e -- ( ? f: ^rT : ^ i-t ^-iv-^t"^- ^. jj
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Scale

a loo ~ iaoMitrer

PLAN OF THE RUINS OF HELIOrOLIS. 2

it touched. Yet she had lost neither the wish nor the
power to bring forth, and sought fertilization from another

Legrain in 1891. About the time when the worship of Sit was proscribed,
one of the Egyptian owners of this little monument had endeavoured to alter
its character, and to transform it into a statuette of the god Khnumu. He
took out the upright ears, replacing them with ram s horns, but made no other
change. In the drawing I have had the later addition of the curved horns
removed, and restored the upright ears, whose marks may still be seen upon
the sides of the head-dress.

1 The impersonal character of Nephthys, her artificial origin, and her
derivation from Isis, have been pointed out by MASPERO (Etudes de Mythologie
ct d Archeologie Egypticnncs, vol. ii. pp. 362-364). The very name of the
goddess, which means the lady (nibit} of the mansion (Jidif), confirms this
view.

2 Drawn by Thuillier, from the Description de Vfigypte (Atlas, Ant., vol.
v. pi. 26, 1).

HELIOPOLIS AND ITS SCHOOLS OF THEOLOGY 191

source. Tradition had it that she had made Osiris drunken,
drawn him to her arms without his knowledge, and borne
him a son ; the child of this furtive union was the jackal
Anubis. Thus when a higher Nile overflows lands not
usually covered by the inundation, and lying unproductive
for lack of moisture, the soil eagerly absorbs the water, and
the germs which lay concealed in the ground burst forth
into life. The gradual invasion of the domain of Sit by
Osiris marks the beginning of the strife. Sit rebels against
the wrong of which he is the victim, involuntary though it
was ; he surprises and treacherously slays his brother,
drives Isis into temporary banishment among her marshes,
and reigns over the kingdom of Osiris as well as over his
own. But his triumph is short-lived. Horus, having
grown up, takes arms against him, defeats him in many
encounters, and banishes him in his turn. The creation of
the world had brought the destroying and the life-sustain
ing gods face to face : the history of the world is but the
story of their rivalries and warfare.

None of these conceptions alone sufficed to explain the
whole mechanism of creation, nor the part which the
various gods took in it. The priests of Heliopolis appro
priated them all, modified some of their details and elimi
nated others, added several new personages, and thus finally
constructed a complete cosmogony, the elements of which
were learnedly combined so as to correspond severally with
the different operations by which the world had been
evoked out of chaos and gradually brought to its present
state. Heliopolis was never directly involved in the great
revolutions of political history ; but no city ever originated

192

THE GODS OF EGYPT

so many mystic ideas and consequently exercised so great
an influence upon the development of civilization. 1 It was
a small town built on the plain not far from the Nile at the

HOKUS, THE AVENGER OF HIS FATHER, AXV ANUBIS UAPUAITU. 2

apex of the Delta, and surrounded by a high wall of mud
bricks whose remains could still be seen at the beginning

1 By its inhabitants it was accounted older than any other city of
Egypt.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato of a bas-relief
in the temple of Seti I. at Abydos. The two gods are conducting King
Ramses II., here identified with Osiris, towards the goddess Hathor.

CITY OF THE SUN

193

of the century, but which have now almost completely dis
appeared. One obelisk standing in the midst of the open
plain, a few waste mounds
of debris, scattered
blocks, and two or three
lengths of crumbling
wall, alone mark the place
where once the city stood.
Ra was worshipped there,
and the Greek name of
Heliopolis is but the
translation of that which
was given to it by the
priests Pi-ra, City of
the Sun. Its principal
temple, the " Mansion of
the PriDce," rose from
about the middle of the
enclosure, and sheltered,
together with the god
himself, those animals
in which he became in
carnate : the bull Mnevis,
and sometimes the
Phoanix. According to

-IT -I -, , . THE SUN SPRINGING FROM AN OPENING LOTUS-

ai1 legend, tnlS FLOWER IN THE FORM OF THE CHILD HOKUS. 1

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin. The open lotus-flower, with a bud on either
side, stands upon the usual sign for any water-basin. Here the sign represents
the Nu, that dark watery abyss from which the lotus sprang on the morning
of creation, and whereon it is still supposed to bloom.

VOL. I.

194

THE GODS OF EGYPT

wondrous bird appeared in Egypt only once in five hundred
years. It is born and lives in the depths of Arabia, but
when its father dies it covers the body with a layer of
myrrh, and flies at utmost speed to the temple of Helio-
polis, there to bury it. 1 In the beginning, Ea was the sun

THE TLAIX AND MOUNDS OF HELIOrOLTS FIFTY YEARS AGO. 2

1 The Phoenix is not the Bond (cf. p. 186, note 2), but a fabulous bird
derived from the golden sparrow-hawk, which was primarily a form of
Haroeris, and of the sun-gods in second place only. On the authority of bis
Heliopolitan guides, Herodotus tells us (ii. 83) that in shape and size the
phoenix resembled the eagle, and this statement alone should have sufficed
to prevent any attempt at identifying it with the Bonu, which is either a
heron or a lapwing.

2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a water-colour published by LEPSIUS,
DenJcm., i. 56. The view is taken from the midst of the ruins at the foot of
the obelisk of Usirtasen. A little stream runs in the foreground, and passes

RA, HIS IDENTIFICATION WITH HORUS 195

itself, whose fires appear to be lighted every morning in
the east and to be extinguished at evening in the west;
and to the people such he always remained. Among the
theologians there was considerable difference of opinion on
the point. Some held the disk of the sun to be the body
which the god assumes when presenting himself for the
adoration of his worshippers. Others affirmed that it rather
represented his active and radiant soul. Finally, there
were many who defined it as one of his forms of being
khopriu one of his self-manifestations, without presuming
to decide whether it was his body or his soul which he
deigned to reveal to human eyes; but whether soul or
body, all agreed that the sun s disk had existed in the Nu
before creation. But how could it have lain beneath the
primordial ocean without either drying up the waters or
being extinguished by them ? At this stage the identifica
tion of Ka with Horus and his right eye served the purpose
of the theologians admirably : the god needed only to have
closed his eyelid in order to prevent his fires from coming
in contact with the water. 1 He was also said to have shut
up his disk within a lotus-bud, whose folded petals had
safely protected it. The flower had opened on the morning
of the first day, and from it the god had sprung suddenly as
a child wearing the solar disk upon his head. But all

through a muddy pool ; to right and left are mounds of ruins, which were
then considerable, but have since been partially razed. In the distance
Cairo rises against the south-west.

This is clearly implied in the expression so often used by the sacred
writers of Ancient Egypt in reference to the appearance of the sun and his
first act at the time of creation : " Thou openest the two eyes, and earth is
flooded with rays of Jight."

196

THE GODS OF EGYPT

theories led the theologians to distinguish two periods, and
as it were two beings in the existence of supreme deity : a
pre-mundane sun lying inert within the bosom of the dark
waters, and our living and life-giving sun.

One division of the Heliopolitan school retained the use
of traditional terms and images in reference to these Sun-

HAKMAKUuiTI-IIAKMAKHIS, THE GREAT GOD. 1

gods. To the first it left the human form, and the title of
Ka, with the abstract sense of creator, deriving the name
from the verb rd, which means to give. For the second it
kept the form of the sparrow-hawk and the name of Harma-
khuiti Horus in the two horizons which clearly denoted

i Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger of an outer wall of
the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak. Harmakhis grants years and festivals
the Pharaoh Seti I., who kneels before him, and is presented
lioness-headed goddess Sokhit, here described as a magician Olrtt Wcau.

ATUMU 197

his function ; 1 and it summed up the idea of the sun as a
whole in the single name of Ka-Harmakhutti, and in a
single image in which the hawk-head of Horus was grafted
upon the human hody of Ra. The other divisions of the
school invented new names for new conceptions. The sun
existing before the world they called Creator Tumti,
Atuniu 2 and our earthly sun they called KhopriHe who
is. Turnu was a man crowned and clothed with the in
signia of supreme power, a true king of gods, majestic and
impassive as the Pharaohs who succeeded each other upon
the throne of Egypt. The conception of Khopri as a disk
enclosing a scarabseus, or a man with a scarabaBus upon his
head, or a scarabaBus-headed mummy, was suggested by the
accidental alliteration of his name and that of Khopirru,
the scarabseus. The difference between the possible forms
of the god was so slight as to be eventually lost altogether.
His names were grouped by twos and threes in every

Harmakhuiti is Horus, the sky of the two horizons ; i.e. the sky of the
daytime, and the night sky. When the celestial Horus was confounded with
Ra, and became the sun (cf. p. 133), he naturally also became the sun of the
two horizons, the sun by day, and the sun by night.

; E. DE ROUGE, titudes sur le Rituel funeraire, p. 76 : " His name may be
connected with two radicals. Tern is a negation ; it may be taken to mean
the Inapproachable One, the Unknown (as in Thebes, where Amun means
mystery). Atum is, in fact, described as existing alone in the abyss, before
the appearance of light. It was in .this time of darkness that Atum per
formed the first act of creation, and this allows of our also connecting his
name with the Coptic TAMIO, creare. Atum was also the prototype of man
(in Coptic TMB, homo}, and becomes a perfect turn after his resurrection."
BRUGSCH would rather explain Tdmu as meaning the Perfect One, the
Complete. E. DE ROUGE S philological derivations are no longer admissible ;
but his explanation of the name corresponds so well with the part played by
the god that I fail to see how that can be challenged.

198

THE GODS OF EGYPT

conceivable way, and the scarabseus of Khopri took its place
upon the head of Ea, while the hawk headpiece was trans
ferred from the shoulders of Harmakhuiti to those of Tumu.
The complex beings resulting from these combinations, Ea-
Tiimu, Atiimu-Ea, Ea-Tiimii-Khopri, Ra-Harmakhuiti-Tumu,
Tum-Harmakhuiti-Khopri, never attained to any pro
nounced individuality. They were as a rule simple dupli-

KHOPRI, THE SCAKAB.ZEUS GOD, IX HIS BARK.

cates of the feudal god, names rather than persons, and
though hardly taken for one another indiscriminately, the
distinctions between them had reference to mere details of
their functions and attributes. Hence arose the idea of
making these gods into embodiments of the main phases in
the life of the sun during the day and throughout the year.
Ea symbolized the sun of springtime and before sunrise,
Harmakhuiti the summer and the morning sun, At u mil the

HELIOPOLITAN VERSION OF THE CREATION 199

sun of autumn and of afternoon, Khopri that of winter and
of night. The people of Heliopolis accepted the new
names and the new forms presented for their worship, hut
always subordinated them to their beloved Ba. For them
Ba never ceased to be the god of the nome ; while Atumu
remained the god of the theologians, and was invoked by
them, the people preferred Ba. At Thinis and at Seben-
nytos Anhiiri incurred the same fate as befell Ba at Helio
polis. After he had been identified with the sun, the
similar identification of Shu inevitably followed. Of old,
Anhiiri and Shu were twin gods, incarnations of sky and
earth. They were soon but one god in two persons the
god Anhiiri- Shu, of which the one half under the title of
Anhuri represented, like Atumu, the primordial being ;
and Shu, the other half, became, as his name indicates,
the creative sun-god who upholds (shu) the sky.

Tuinu then, rather than Ba, was placed by the Helio-
politan priests at the head of their cosmogony as supreme
creator and governor. Several versions were current as to
how he had passed from inertia into action, from the
personage of Tumii into- that of Ba. According to the
version most widely received, he had suddenly cried across
the waters, " Come unto me ! " x and immediately the mys
terious lotus had unfolded its petals, and Ba had appeared
at the edge of its open cup as a disk, a newborn child, or
a disk-crowned sparrow-hawk ; this was probably a refined
form of a ruder and earlier tradition, according to which it
was upon Ba himself that the office had devolved of

1 It was on this account that the Egyptians named the first day of the
year the Lay of Come-unto-me !

200 THE GODS OF EGYPT

separating Sibii from Nuifc, for the purpose of constructing
the heavens and the earth. But it was doubtless felt that
so unseemly an act of intervention was beneath the dignity
even of an inferior form of the suzerain god; Shu was
therefore borrowed for the purpose from the kindred cult of
Anhuri, and at Heliopolis, as at Sebennytos, the office was
entrusted to him of seizing the sky-goddess and raising her
with outstretched arms. The violence suffered by Nuit at
the hands of Shu led to a connexion of the Osirian dogma
of Mendes with the solar dogma of Sebennytos, and thus
the tradition describing the creation of the world was com
pleted by another, explaining its division into deserts and
fertile lands. Sibu, hitherto concealed beneath the body of
his wife, was now exposed to the sun ; Osiris and Sit, Isis
and Nephthys, were born, and, falling from the sky, their
mother, on to the earth, their father, they shared the sur
face of the latter among themselves. Thus the Heliopolitan
doctrine recognized three principal events in the creation
of the universe : the dualization of the supreme god and
the breaking forth of light, the raising of the sky and the
laying bare of the earth, the birth of the Nile and the allot
ment of the soil of Egypt, all expressed as the manifesta
tions of successive deities. Of these deities, the latter ones
already constituted a family of father, mother, and children,
like human families. Learned theologians availed them
selves of this example to effect analogous relationships
between the rest of the gods, combining them all into one
line of descent. As Atumu-Ka could have no fellow, he
stood apart in the first rank, and it was decided that Shu
should be his sou, whom he had formed out of himself

THE TWIN LIONS 201

alone, on the first day of creation, by the simple intensity
of his own virile energy. Shu, reduced to the position of
divine son, had in his turn begotten Sibu and Niilt, the two
deities which he separated. Until then he had not been
supposed to have any wife, and he also might have himself
brought his own progeny into being ; but lest a power of
spontaneous generation equal to that of the demiurge
should be ascribed to him, he was married, and the wife
found for him was Tafnuit, his twin sister, born in the same

TIIK TWIN LIONS, SHtJ AND TAFXUIT. 1

way as he was born. This goddess, invented for the occa
sion, was never fully alive, and remained, like Nephthys, a
theological entity rather than a real person. The texts
describe her as the pale reflex of her husband. Together
with him she upholds the sky, and every morning receives

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a vignette in the papyrus of Ani in the
British Museum, published by LEPAGE-RENOUF in the Proceedings of the
Society of Biblical Archaeology, vol. xi., 1889-90, pp. 26-28. The inscription
above the lion on the right reads safu, "yesterday;" the other, duau, " this

morning."

202 THE GODS OF EGYPT

the newborn sun as it emerges from the mountain of the
east ; she is a lioness when Shu is a lion, a woman when
he is a man, a lioness-headed woman if he is a lion-headed
man ; she is angry when he is angry, appeased when he is
appeased; she has no sanctuary wherein he is not wor
shipped. In short, the pair made one being in two bodies,
or, to use the Egyptian expression, " one soul in its two
twin bodies."

Hence we see that the Heliopolitans proclaimed the
creation to be the work of the sun-god, Atumu-Ra, and of
the four pairs of deities who were descended from him. It
was really a learned variant of the old doctrine that the
universe was composed of a sky-god, Horus, supported by
his four children and their four pillars : in fact, the four
sons of the Heliopolitan cosmogony, Shu and Sibu, Osiris
and Sit, were occasionally substituted for the four older
gods of the "houses" of the world. This being premised,
attention must be given to the important differences
between the two systems. At the outset, instead of
appearing contemporaneously upon the scene, like the four
children of Horus, the four Heliopolitan gods were deduced
one from another, and succeeded each other in the order of
their birth. They had not that uniform attribute of
supporter, associating them always with one definite
function, but each of them felt himself endowed with
faculties and armed with special powers required by his
condition. Ultimately they took to themselves goddesses,
and thus the total number of beings working in different
ways at the organization of the universe was brought up
to nine. Hence they were called by the collective name

THE HELIOPOLITAN ENNEADS 203

of the Ennead, the Nine gods pauit nutiru, 1 and the god
at their head was entitled Pa&iti, the god of the Ennead.
When creation was completed, its continued existence was
ensured by countless agencies with whose operation the
persons of the Ennead were not at leisure to concern them
selves, but had ordained auxiliaries to preside over each
of the functions essential to the regular and continued
working of all things. The theologians of Heliopolis
selected eighteen from among the inumerable divinities
of the feudal cults of Egypt, and of these they formed two
secondary Enneads, who were regarded as the offspring of
the Ennead of the creation. The first of the two
secondary Enneads, generally known as the Minor Ennead,
recognized as chief Harsiesis, the son of Osiris. Harsiesis
was originally an earth-god who had avenged the assassina
tion of his father and the banishment of his mother by Sit ;
that is, he had restored fulness to the Nile and fertility to
the Delta. When Harsiesis was incorporated into the solar
religions of Heliopolis, his filiation was left undisturbed as
being a natural link between the two Enneads, but his

1 The first Egyptologists confounded the sign used in writing paiut with
the sign kh, and the word khet, other. E. de Rouge was the first to deter
mine its phonetic value : " it should be read Pad, and designates a body of
gods." Shortly afterwards BKUGSCH proved that " the group of gods invoked
by E. de Rouge must have consisted of nine " of an Ennead. This expla
nation was not at first admitted either by LEPSIUS or by MARIETTE, who had
proposed a mystic interpretation of the word in his Memoire sur la mere
d Apis, or by E. DE ROUGE, or by CHABAS. The interpretation a Nine, an
Ennead, was not frankly adopted until later, and more especially after the
discovery of the Pyramid texts ; to-day, it is the only meaning admitted. Of
course the Egyptian Ennead has no other connection than that of name with
the Enneads of the Neo-Platonists.

204

THE GODS OF EGYPT

personality was brought into conformity with the new
surroundings into which he was transplanted. He was
identified with Ba through the intervention of the older
Horus, Haroeris-Harmakhis, and the Minor Ennead, like
the Great Ennead, began with a sun-god. This assimila
tion was not pushed so far as to invest the younger Horns
with the same powers as his fictitious ancestor : he was the
sun of earth, the everyday sun, while Atumu-Ea was still
the sun pre-rnundane and eternal. Our knowledge of the

THE FOUR FUNERARY GENII, KHABSON^F, TIlblAtfTF, HAPI, AND AMSIT. 1

eight other deities of the Minor Ennead is very imperfect.
We see only that these were the gods who chiefly protected
the sun-god against its enemies and helped it to follow its
regular course. Thus Harhuditi, the Horus of Edfu, spear
in hand, pursues the hippopotami or serpents which haunt
the celestial waters and menace the god. The progress of
the Sun-bark is controlled by the incantations of Thot,
while Uapuaitu, the dual jackal-god of Siut, guides, and
occasionally tows it along the sky from south to north.
The third Ennead would seem to have included among its

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from WILKINSON S Manners and Customs, 2nd
edit., vol. iii. p. 221, pi. xlviii.

THE HELIOPOLITAN ENNEADS 205

members Anubis the jackal, and the four faoerary genii, the
children of Horns Hapi, Amsit, Tiumautf, Kabhsonuf; it
further appears as though its office was the care and
defence of the dead sun, the sun by night, as the second
Ennead had charge of the living sun. Its functions were
so obscure and apparently so insignificant as compared
with those exercised by the other Enneads, that the
theologians did not take the trouble either to represent it
or to enumerate its persons. They invoked it as a whole,
after the two others, in those formulas in which they called
into play all the creative and preservative forces of the
universe ; but this was rather as a matter of conscience and
from love of precision than out of any true deference. At
the initial impulse of the lord of Heliopolis, the three
combined Enneads started the world and kept it going, and
gods whom they had not incorporated were either enemies
to be fought with, or mere attendants.

The doctrine of the Heliopolitan Ennead acquired an
immediate and a lasting popularity. It presented such a
clear scheme of creation, and one whose organization was
so thoroughly in accordance with the spirit of tradition,
that the various sacerdotal colleges adopted it one after
another, accommodating it to the exigencies of local
patriotism. Each placed its own nome-god at the head
of the Ennead as "god of the Nine," "god of the first
time," creator of heaven and earth, sovereign ruler of men,
and lord of all action. As there was the Ennead of Atumu
at Heliopolis, so there was that of Anhuri at Thinis and at
Sebennytos ; that of Minu at Coptos and at Panopolis ;
that of Harolds at Edfu ; that of Sobkhu at Ombos ; and,

206

THE GODS OP EGYPT

later, that of Phtah at Memphis and of Arnon at Thebes.
Nomes which worshipped a goddess had no scruples
whatever in ascribing to her the part played by Atumu,
and in crediting her with the spontaneous maternity of
Shu and Tafnuit. Nit was the source and ruler of the

Scalg

o wo SooXeirct

PLAN OF THE KUINS OF HERMOPOLTS MAGNA. 1

Ennead of Sa is, Isis of that of Buto, and Hathor of that of
Denderah. 2 Few of the sacerdotal colleges went beyond

1 Plan drawn by Thuillier, from the Description de V rfgypte, Ant., vol. iv.
pi. 50.

2 On the Eansad of Hathor at Denderah, see MAKIETTE, Denderah, p. 80,

THOT AND THE HERMOPOLITAN EXNEAD 207

the substitution of their own feudal gods for Atumu.
Provided that the god of each nome held the rank of
supreme lord, the rest mattered little, and the local
theologians made no change in the order of the other
agents of creation, their vanity being unhurt even by the
lower offices assigned by the Heliopolitan tradition to such
powers as Osiris, Sibu, and Sit, who were known and
worshipped throughout the whole country. The theo
logians of Herrnopolis alone declined to borrow the new
system just as it stood, and in all its parts. Hermopolis
had always been one of the ruling cities of Middle Egypt.
Standing alone in the midst of the land lying between
the Eastern and Western Niles, it had established upon
each of the two great arms of the river a port and a
custom-house, where all boats travelling either up or down
stream paid toll on passing. Not only the corn and natural
products of the valley and of the Delta, but also goods from
distant parts of Africa brought to Siut by Soudanese
caravans, helped to fill the treasury of Hermopolis. Thot,
the god of the city, represented as ibis or baboon, was
essentially a moon-god, who measured time, counted the
days, numbered the months, and recorded the years.
Lunar divinities, as we know, are everywhere supposed to
exercise the most varied powers : they command the
mysterious forces of the universe ; they know the sounds,

et seq., of the text. The fact that Nit, Isis, and, generally speaking, all the
feudal goddesses, were the chiefs of their local Enneads, is proved by the
epithets applied to them, which represent them as having independent
creative power by virtue of their own unaided force and energy, like the god
at the head of the Heliopolitan Ennead.

208

THE GODS OF EGYPT

words, and gestures by which those forces are put in
motion, and not content with using them for their, own
benefit, they also teach to their worshippers the art of
employing them. Thot formed no
exception to this rule. He was
lord of the voice, master of words
and of books, possessor or inventor
of those magic writings which

i ,.

THE IBIS TUOT. 1

THE CYXOCKPIIALOUS THOT. 2

nothing in heaven, on earth, or in Hades can withstand. 3

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from an enamelled pottery figure from Coptos,
now in my possession. Neck, feet, and tail are in blue enamel, the rest is
in green. The little personage represented as squatting beneath the beak is
Mait, the goddess of truth, and the ally of Thot. The ibis was furnished
with a ring for suspending it ; this has been broken off, but traces of it may
still be seen at the back of the head.

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a green enamelled pottery figure in my
possession (Sai te period).

3 Cf. in the tale of Satni (MASPERO, Contes populaires de VAndenne Egypte,
2nd edit., p. 175) the description of " the book which Thot has himself written
with his own hand," and which makes its possessor the equal of the gods.
" The two formulas which are written therein, if thou recitest the first thou
shalt charm heaven, earth, Hades, the mountains, the waters ; thou shalt
know the birds of the sky and the reptiles, how many soever they be ; thou
shalt see the fish of the deep, for a divine power will cause them to rise to
the surface of the water. If thou readest the second formula, even although

THE CREATION BY WORD AND BY VOICE 209

He had discovered the incantations which evoke and
control the gods ; he had transcribed the texts and noted
the melodies of these incantations ; he recited them with
that true intonation md khroa which renders them all-
powerful, and every one, whether god or man, to whom he
imparted them, and whose voice he made true smd klirdu
became like himself master of the universe. He had
accomplished the creation not by muscular effort to which
the rest of the cosmogonical gods primarily owed their
birth, but by means of formulas, or even of the voice alone,
" the first time : when he awoke in the Nu. In fact,
the articulate word and the voice were believed to be
the most potent of creative forces, not remaining im
material on issuing from the lips, but condensing, so to
speak, into tangible substances ; into bodies which were
themselves animated by creative life and energy ; into
gods and goddesses who lived or who created in their turn.
By a very short phrase Tumu had called forth the gods
who order all things; for his "Come unto me! uttered
with a loud voice upon the day of creation, had evoked
the sun from within the lotus. Thot had opened his lips,
and the voice which proceeded from him had become
an entity; sound had solidified into matter, and by a
simple emission of voice the four gods who preside over
the four houses of the world had come forth alive from
his mouth without bodily effort on his part, and without
spoken evocation. Creation by the voice is almost as

them shouldest be in the tomb, thou shalt again take the form which was
thine upon earth ; thou shalt even see the sun rising in heaven, and his cycle
of gods, and the moon in the form wherein it appeareth.

VOL. L P

210 THE GODS OF EGYPT

great a refinement of thought as the substitution of
creation by the word for creation by muscular effort.
In fact, sound bears the same relation to words that the
whistle of a quartermaster bears to orders for the naviga
tion of a ship transmitted by a speaking trumpet; it
simplifies speech, reducing it as it were to a pure ab
straction. At first it was believed that the creator had
made the world with a word, then that he had made it
by sound ; but the further conception of his having made
it by thought does not seem to have occurred to the
theologians. It was narrated at Hermopolis, and the
legend was ultimately universally accepted, even by the
Heliopolitans, that the separation of Nuit and Sibu had
taken place at a certain spot on the site of the city where
Sibu had ascended the mound on which the feudal temple
was afterwards built, in order that he might better sustain
the goddess and uphold the sky at the proper height.
The conception of a Creative Council of five gods had so
far prevailed at Hermopolis that from this fact the city had
received in remote antiquity the name of the " House of
the Five ; " its temple was called the " Abode of the Five :
down to a late period in Egyptian history, and its prince,
who was the hereditary high priest of Thot, reckoned as
the first of his official titles that of " Great One of the
House of the Five."

The four couples who had helped Atumii were identified
with the four auxiliary gods of Thot, and changed the
council of Five into a Great Hermopolitan Ennead, but at
the cost of strange metamorphoses. However artificially
they had been grouped about Atumii, they had all

AUXILIARY GODS OF HERMOPOLIS 211

preserved such distinctive characteristics as prevented their
being confounded one with another. When the universe
which they had helped to build up was finally seen to be
the result of various operations demanding a considerable
manifestation of physical energy, each god was required to
preserve the individuality necessary for the production of
such effects as were expected of him. They could not have
existed and carried on their work without conforming to
the ordinary conditions of humanity; being born one of
another, they were bound to have paired with living
goddesses as capable of bringing forth their children as
they were of begetting them. On the other hand, the four
auxiliary gods of Herrnopolis exercised but one means of
action the voice. Having themselves come forth from
the master s mouth, it was by voice that they created and
perpetuated the world. Apparently they could have done
without goddesses had marriage not been imposed upon
them by their identification with the corresponding gods
of the Heliopolitan Ennead ; at any rate, their wives had
but a show of life, almost destitute of reality. As these
four gods worked after the manner of their master,
Thot, so they also bore his form and reigned along
with him as so many baboons. When associated with
the lord of Hermopolis, the eight divinities of Heliopolis
assumed the character and the appearance of the four
Hermopolitan gods in whom they were merged. They
were often represented as eight baboons surrounding the
supreme baboon, or as four pairs of gods and goddesses
without either characteristic attributes or features ; or,
finally, as four pairs of gods and goddesses, the gods being

212

THE GODS OF EGYPT

THE HERMOPOLITAN OGDOAD. 1

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a photograph by Beato. Of. LEPSIUS,
Denkm., iv. pi. 66 c. In this illustration I have combined the two extremities
of a great scene at Philae, in which the Eight, divided into two groups of four,

THE DIFFUSION OF THE ENNEADS

213

frog-headed men, and the goddesses. serpent-headed women.
Morning and evening do they sing; and the mysterious
hymns wherewith they salute the rising and the setting sun
ensure the continuity of his course. Their names did not
survive their metamorphoses ; each pair
had no longer more than a single name, the
termination of each name varying accord
ing as a god or a goddess was intended :
Nu and Nuit, Helm and Hehit, Kaku
and Kakit, Ninii and Ninit. As far as we
are able to judge, the couple Nu-Nuit
answers to Shu-Tafnuit; Hahu-Hehit to
Sibu and Nuit ; Kaku-Kakit to Osiris and
Isis ; Ninii-Nmit to Sit and Nephthys.
There was seldom any occasion to invoke
them separately ; they were addressed col
lectively as the Eight Khmunu and it
was on their account that Hermopolis was
named Khmunu, the City of the Eight.
Ultimately they were deprived of the little
individual life still left to them, and were
fused into a single being to whom the
texts refer as Khomninu, the god
Eight. By degrees the Ennead of
Thot was thus reduced to two terms :

take part in the adoration of the king. According to a custom common
towards the Graeco-Roman period, the sculptor has made the feet of his
gods like jackals heads ; it is a way of realizing the well-known metaphor
which compares a rapid runner to the jackal roaming around Egypt.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a bronze statuette found at Thebes, and
now in my possession.

214 THE GODS OF EGYPT

the god One and the god Eight, the Monad and the
Ogdoad. The latter had scarcely more than a theoretical
existence, and was generally absorbed into the person of
the former. Thus the theologians of Hermopolis gradually
disengaged the unity of their feudal god from the multi
plicity of the cosmogonic deities.

As the sacerdotal colleges had adopted the Heliopolitan
doctrine, so they now generally adopted that of Hermo
polis : Amon, for instance, being made to preside indif
ferently over the eight baboons and over the four inde
pendent couples of the primitive Ennead. In both cases the
process of adaptation was absolutely identical, and would
have been attended by no difficulty whatever, had the
divinities to whom it was applied only been without family ;
in that case, the one needful change for each city would
have been that of a single name in the Heliopolitan list,
thus leaving the number of the Ennead unaltered. But
since these deities had been turned into triads they could
no longer be primarily regarded as simple units, to be com
bined with the elements of some one or other of the Enneads
without preliminary arrangement. The two companions
whom each had chosen had to be adopted also, and the
single Thot, or single Atumu, replaced by the three
patrons of the nome, thus changing the traditional nine
into eleven. Happily, the constitution of the triad lent
itself to all these adaptations. We have seen that the
father and the son became one and the same personage,
whenever it was thought desirable. We also know that
one of the two parents always so far predominated as
almost to efface the other. Sometimes it was the goddess

GODS "OXE AND ONLY"

215

who disappeared behind her husband ; sometimes it was the
god whose existence merely served to account for the off
spring of the goddess, and whose only title to his position
consisted in the fact that he was her husband. Two
personages thus closely connected were not long in blending
into one, and were soon defined as being two faces, the
masculine and feminine aspects of a single being. On the
one hand, the father was one with the son, and on the
other he was one with the mother. Hence the mother was
one with the son as with the father, and the three gods of

THE THEBAN EXKEAD. 1

the triad were resolved into one god in three persons.
Thanks to this subterfuge, to put a triad at the head of an
Ennead was nothing more than a roundabout way of placing
a single god there : the three persons only counted as one,
and the eleven names only amounted to the nine canonical
divinities. Thus, the Theban Ennead of Amon-Maut-
Khonsu, Shu, Tafnuit, Sibu, Nuit, Osiris, Isis, Sit, and
Nephthys, is, in spite of its apparent irregularity, as correct
as the typical Ennead itself. In such Enneads Isis is
duplicated by goddesses of like nature, such as Hathor,

1 This Ennead consists of fourteen members Montu, duplicating Atumu ;
the four usual couples ; then Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, together with
his associate deities, Hathor, Tanu, and Anit.

216 THE GODS OF EGYPT

Selkit, Taniuit, and yet remains but one, while Osiris brings
in his son Horus, who gathers about himself all such gods
as play the part of divine son in other triads. The
theologians had various methods of procedure for keeping
the number of persons in an Ennead at nine, no matter
how many they might choose to embrace in it. Super
numeraries were thrown in like the " shadows " at Roman
suppers, whom guests would bring without warning to their
host, and whose presence made not the slightest difference
either in the provision for the feast, or in the arrangements
for those who had been formally invited.

Thus remodelled at all points, the Ennead of Heliopolis
was readily adjustable to sacerdotal caprices, and even
profited by the facilities which the triad afforded for its
natural expansion. In time the Heliopolitan version of
the origin of Shu-Taf nuit must have appeared too primitively
barbarous. Allowing for the licence of the Egyptians
during Pharaonic times, the concept of the spontaneous
emission whereby Atumu had produced his twin children
was characterized by a superfluity of coarseness which it
was at least unnecessary to employ, since by placing the
god in a triad, this double birth could be duly explained in
conformity with the ordinary laws of life. The solitary
Atumu of the more ancient dogma gave place to Atumu the
husband and father. He, had, indeed, two wives, lusasit
and Nebthotpit, but their individualities were so feebly
marked that no one took the trouble to choose between
them; each passed as the mother of Shu and Tafnuit.
This system of combination, so puerile in its ingenuity,
was fraught with the gravest consequences to the history

GODS "ONE AND ONLY 217

of Egyptian religions. Shu having been transformed into
the divine son of the Heliopolitan triad, could henceforth
be assimilated with the divine sons of all those triads
which took the place of Tumu at the heads of provincial
Enneads. Thus we find that Horus the son of Isis at Buto,
Arihosnofir the son of Nit at Sais, Khnumu the son of
Hathor at Esneh, were each in turn identified with Shu the
son of Atumu, and lost their individualities in his. Sooner
or later this was bound to result in bringing all the triads
closer together, and in their absorption into one another.
Through constant reiteration of the statement that the
divine sons of the triads were identical with Shu, as being
in the second rank of the Ennead, the idea arose that this
was also the case in triads unconnected with Enneads ; in
other terms, that the third person in any family of gods
was everywhere and always Shu under a different name. It
having been finally admitted in the sacerdotal colleges that
Tumu and Shu, father and son, were one, all the divine
sons were, therefore, identical with Tumu, the father of
Shu, and as each divine son was one with his parents, it
inevitably followed that these parents themselves were
identical with Tumu. Reasoning in this way, the Egyptians
naturally tended towards that conception of the divine
oneness to which the theory of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad
was already leading them. In fact, they reached it, and
the monuments show us that in comparatively early times
the theologians were busy uniting in a single person the
prerogatives which their ancestors had ascribed to many
different beings. But this conception of deity towards
which their ideas were converging has nothing in common

218

THE GODS OF EGYPT

with the conception of the God of our modern religions and
philosophies. No god of the Egyptians was ever spoken of
simply as God. Tumu was the "one and only god"
nutir udu uditi at Heliopolis ; Anhuri-Shu was also the
"one and only god" at Sehennytos and at Thinis. The
unity of Atuinu did not interfere with that of Anhuri-Shu,
but each of these gods, although the "sole" deity in his
own domain, ceased to be so in the domain of the other.
The feudal spirit, always alert and jealous, prevented the
higher dogma which was dimly apprehended in the temples
from triumphing over local religions and extending over the
whole land. Egypt had as many " sole " deities as she had
large cities, or even important temples ; she never accepted
the idea of the sole God, " beside whom there is none
other."

THE

LEGENDARY HISTOBY OF EGYPT

THE DIVINE DYNASTIES: RA, sutf, osmis, stT, HOBUS THOT, AND THE

INVENTION OF SCIENCES AND WRITING MENES, AND THE THREE FIRST
HUMAN DYNASTIES.

The Egyptians claim to be the most ancient of peoples : traditions concerning
the creation of man and of animals The Heliopolitan Enneads the framework
of the divine dynasties Ed, the first King of Egypt, and his fabulous history :
he allows himself to be duped and robbed by Isis, destroys rebellious men, and
ascends into heaven.

The legend of Shil and Sibil The reign of Osiris Onnophris and of Isis :
they civilize Egypt and the loorld Osiris, slain by Sit, is entombed by Isis and
avenged by HorusThe wars of Typhon and of Horus : peace, and the division
of E jypt between the two gods.

The Osirian embalmment : the kingdom of Osiris opened to the followers of
HorusThe Boole of the Dead The journeying of the soul in search of the

( 220 )

fields of laid The judgment of the soul, the negative confession TJic privileges
and duties of Osirian souls Confusion between Osirian and Solar ideas as to
the state of the dead : the dead in the bark of the Sun The going forth by day
The campaigns of HarmaJchis against Sit.

Thot, the inventor : he reveals all sciences to men Astronomy, stellar tables ;
the year, its subdivisions, its defects, influence of the heavenly bodies and the
days upon human destiny Magic arts; incantations, amulets Medicine: the
vitalizing spirits, diagnosis, treatment Writing : ideographic, syllabic,
alphabetic.

The history of Egypt as handed down by tradition : Manetho, the royal lists,
main divisions of Egyptian history The beginnings of its early history vague
and uncertain: Menes, and the legend of Memphis The first three human
dynasties, the two Thinite and the Memphite Character and origin of the
legends concerning them The famine stela The earliest monuments: the step
pyramid of Saqqdrah.

ISIS, HAVING FLED TO THE MARSHES, SUCKLES HOKUS UXDEU THE PROTECTION

OF THE GODS. 1

CHAPTER III

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

The divine dynasties : Ra, Shu, Osiris, Sit, Horus Thot, and the invention
of sciences and writing Menes, and the three first human dynasties.

building np and diffusion of the
doctrine of the Ennead, like the for
mation of the land of Egypt, demanded
centuries of sustained effort, centuries
of which the inhabitants themselves
knew neither the number nor the
authentic history. When questioned
as to the remote past of their race,
they proclaimed themselves the most
ancient of mankind, in comparison
with whom all other races were but a
mob of young children ; and they

1 Bas-relief at Philse ; drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by
Beato. The vignette, also drawn by Faucher-Gudin, represents an ichneumon,

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

looked upon nations which denied their pretensions with
such indulgence and pity as we feel for those who doubt a
well-known truth. Their forefathers had appeared upon the
banks of the Nile even before the creator had completed
his work, so eager were the gods to behold their birth.
No Egyptian disputed the reality of this right of the
firstborn, which ennobled the whole race ; but if they were
asked the name of their divine father, then the harmony
was broken, and each advanced the claims of a different
personage. 1 Phtah had modelled man with his own hands ; 2
Khnumu had formed him on a potter s table. 3 Ea at his
first rising, seeing the earth desert and bare, had flooded

or Pharaoh s rat, sitting up on its haunches, with paws uplifted in adoration.
It has been variously interpreted. I take it to be the image of an animal
spontaneously generated out of the mud, and giving thanks to Ra at the
very moment of its creation. The original is of bronze, and in the Gizeh
Museum.

We know the words which Plato puts into the mouth of an Egyptian
priest : "O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children, and there is no old
man who is a Greek ! You are all young in mind ; there is no opinion or
tradition of knowledge among you which is white with age." Other nations
disputed their priority the Phrygians, the Medes, or rather the tribe of the
Magi among the Medes, the Ethiopians, the Scythians. A cycle of legends
had gathered about this subject, giving an account of the experiments
instituted by Psamtik, or other sovereigns, to find out which were right,
Egyptians or foreigners.

At Philfe and at Denderah, Phtah is represented as piling upon his
potter s table the plastic clay from which he is about to make a human body,
and which is somewhat wrongly called the egg of the world. It is really the
lump of earth from which man came forth at his creation.

3 At Philge, Khnumu calls himself " the potter who fashions men, the
modeller of the gods." He there moulds the members of Osiris, the
husband of the local Isis, as at Erment he forms the body of Harsamtaui, or
rather that of Ptolemy Caesar-ion, the son of Julius Caesar and the celebrated
Cleopatra, identified with Harsamtaui.

COLUMN OF THE TEMPLE OF DENDERAK.

THE CREATION OF MAN AND ANIMALS 223

it with his rays as with a flood of tears ; all living things,
vegetable and animal, and man himself, had sprung pell-
mell from his eyes, and were scattered abroad with the
light over the surface of the world. 1 Sometimes the facts
were presented under a less poetic aspect. The mud of the
Nile, heated to excess by the burning sun, fermented and
brought forth the various races of men and animals by
spontaneous generation, having moulded itself into a
thousand living forms. Then its procreative power became
weakened to the verge of exhaustion. Yet on the banks of
the river, in the height of summer, smaller animals might
still be found whose condition showed what had once taken
place in the case of the larger kinds. Some appeared as

already fully formed, and struggling to free themselves from
the oppressive mud ; others, as yet imperfect, feebly stirred
their heads and fore feet, while their hind quarters were
completing their articulation and taking shape within the
matrix of earth. 2 It was not Ea alone whose tears were

1 With reference to the substances which proceeded from the eye of Ra,
see the remarks of BIRCH, Sur un papyrus magique du Muse e Britannique. By
his tears (romlta) Horus, or his eye as identified with the sun, had given
birth to all men, Egyptians (romitu, rotu), Libyans, and Asiatics, excepting
only the negroes. The latter were born from another part of his body by
the same means as those employed by Atumu in the creation of Shu and
Tafnuit.

2 The same story is told, but with reference to rats only, by PLINY, by
DIODOKUS, by ^ELIANUS, by MACBOBIUS, and by other Greek or Latin
writers. Even in later times, and in Europe, this pretended phenomenon
met with a certain degree of belief, as may be seen from the curious work of
MARCUS FREDERICUS WENDELINUS, Archi-palatinus, Admiranda Nili, Franco-
furti, MDCXXIIL, cap. xxi. pp. 157-183. In Egypt all the fellahin believe in
the spontaneous generation of rats as in an article of their creed. They have
spoken to me of it at Thebes, at Denderah, and on the plain of Abydos ; and

224

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

endowed with vitalizing power. All divinities whether
beneficent or malevolent, Sit as well as Osiris or Isis, could
give life by weeping ; and the work of their eyes, when

once it had fallen upon
earth, nourished and
multiplied as vigorous
ly as that which came
ll from the eyes of Ra.
The individual charac
ter of the creator was
not without bearing
upon the nature of his
creatures ; good was
the necessary outcome
of the good gods, evil
of the evil ones ; and
herein lay the explana
tion of the mingling of
things excellent and
things execrable, which
is found everywhere

KIINUMO MODELLING MAN UPON A POTTER S
TABLE. 1

Major Brown has lately noted the same thing in the Fayum. The variant
which he heard from the lips of the notables is curious, for it professes to
explain why the rats who infest the fields in countless bands during the dry
season, suddenly disappear at the return of the inundation ; born of the mud
and putrid water of the preceding year, to mud they return, and as it were
dissolve at the touch of the new waters.

1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Gayet. The scene is taken
from bas-reliefs in the temple of Luxor, where the god Khnumu is seen com
pleting his modelling of the future King Amend thes TIL and his double, repre
sented as two children wearing the side-lock and large necklace. The first
holds his finger to his lips, while the arms of the second swing at his sides.

THE CREATION OF MAN AND ANIMALS 225

throughout the world. Voluntarily or involuntarily, Sit
and his partisans were the cause and origin of all that is
harmful. Daily their eyes shed upon the world those juices
by which plants are made poisonous, as well as malign
influences, crime, and madness. Their saliva, the foam
which fell from their mouths during their attacks of rage,
their sweat, their blood itself, were all no less to be feared.
When any drop of it touched the earth, straightway it
germinated, and produced something strange and baleful
a serpent, a scorpion, a plant of deadly nightshade or of
henbane. But, on the other hand, the sun was all good
ness, and persons or things which it cast forth into life
infallibly partook of its benignity. Wine that maketh man
glad, the bee who works for him in the flowers secreting
wax and honey, the meat and herbs which are his food,
the stuffs that clothe him, all useful things which he makes
for himself, not only emanated from the Solar Eye of
Horus, but were indeed nothing more than the Eye of
Horus under different aspects, and in his name they were
presented in sacrifice. The devout generally were of
opinion that the first Egyptians, the sons and flock of Ka,
came into the world happy and perfect ; l by degrees their
descendants had fallen from that native felicity into their
present state. Some, on the contrary, affirmed that their

1 In the tomb of Seti I., the words flock of the Sun, flock of Ed, are those
by which the god Horus refers to men. Certain expressions used by
Egyptian writers are in themselves sufficient to show that the first genera
tions of men were supposed to have lived in a state of happiness and
perfection. To the Egyptians the times of Bd, the times of the god that- is to
say, the centuries immediately following on the creation were the ideal age,
and no good thing had appeared upon earth since then.

VOL. I. Q

226 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

ancestors were born as so many brutes, unprovided with
the most essential arts of gentle life. They knew nothing
of articulate speech, and expressed themselves by cries
only, like other animals, until the day when Thot taught
them both speech and writing.

These tales sufficed for popular edification ; they pro
vided but meagre fare for the intelligence of the learned.
The latter did not confine their ambition to the possession
of a few incomplete and contradictory details concerning
the beginnings of humanity. They wished to know the
history of its consecutive development from the very first ;
what manner of life had been led by their fathers ; what
chiefs they had obeyed and the names or adventures of
those chiefs ; why part of the nations had left the blessed
banks of the Nile and gone to settle in foreign lands ; by
what stages and in what length of time those who had not
emigrated rose out of native barbarism into that degree
of culture to which the most ancient monuments bore
testimony. No efforts of imagination were needful for the
satisfaction of their curiosity : the old substratum of in
digenous traditions was rich enough, did they but take the
trouble to work it out systematically, and to eliminate its
most incongruous elements. The priests of Heliopolis took
this work in hand, as they had already taken in hand
the same task with regard to the myths referring to the
creation ; and the Enneads provided them with a ready-
made framework. They changed the gods of the Ennead
into so many kings, determined with minute accuracy the
lengths of their reigns, and compiled their biographies from
popular tales. The duality of the feudal god supplied an

THE FRAMEWORK OF THE DIVINE DYNASTIES 227

admirable expedient for connecting the history of the world
with that of chaos. Tumu was identified with Nu, and
relegated to the primordial Ocean : Ea was retained, and
proclaimed the first king of the world. He had not
established his rule without difficulty. The " Children of
Defeat," beings hostile to order and light, engaged him in
fierce battles ; nor did he succeed in organizing his king
dom until he had conquered them in nocturnal combat at
Hermopolis, and even at Heliopolis itself. 1 Pierced with
wounds, Apopi the serpent sank into the depths of Ocean
at the very moment when the new year began. The
secondary members of the Great Ennead, together with
the Sun, formed the first dynasty, which began with the
dawn of the first day, and ended at the coming of Horus,
the son of Isis. The local schools of theology welcomed
this method of writing history as readily as they had
welcomed the principle of the Ennead itself. Some of
them retained the Heliopolitan demiurge, and hastened to
associate him with their own ; others completely eliminated
him in favour of the feudal divinity, Amon at Thebes

1 The Children of Defeat, in Egyptian Mosu batashd, or Mostl batashit,
are often confounded with the followers of Sit, the enemies of Osiris. From
the first they were distinct, and represented beings and forces hostile to the
sun, with the dragon Apopi at their head. Their defeat at Hermopolis corre
sponded to the moment when Shu, raising the sky above the sacred mound
in that city, substituted order and light for chaos and darkness. This defeat
is mentioned in chap. xvii. of the Book of the Dead (NAVILLE S edition, vol. i.
pi. xxiii. 1. 3, et seq.), in which connexion E. DE ROUGK first explained its
meaning. In the same chapter of the Book of the Dead (NAVILLE S edition,
vol. i. pis. xxiv., xxv., 11. 54-58), reference is also made to the battle by
night, in Heliopolis, at the close of which Ra appeared in the form of a cat or
lion, and beheaded the great serpent.

228 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OP EGYPT

Thot at Hermopolis, Phtah at Memphis, keeping the rest
of the dynasty absolutely unchanged. 1 The gods in no
way compromised their prestige by becoming incarnate
and descending to earth. Since they were men of finer
nature, and their qualities, including that of miracle-
working, were human qualities raised to the highest pitch
of intensity, it was not considered derogatory to them
personally to have watched over the infancy and childhood
of primeval man. The raillery in which the Egyptians
occasionally indulged with regard to them, the good-
humoured and even ridiculous rdles ascribed to them in
certain legends, do not prove that they were despised, or
that zeal for them had cooled. The greater the respect of
believers for the objects of their worship, the more easily
do they tolerate the taking of such liberties, and the
condescension of the members of the Ennead, far from
lowering them in the eyes of generations who came too
late to live with them upon familiar terms, only enhanced
the love and reverence in which they were held.

Nothing shows this better than the history of Ka. His
world was ours in the rough ; for since Shu was yet non
existent, and Niiit still reposed in the arms of Sibu, earth
and sky were but one. 2 Nevertheless in this first attempt

1 Thot is the chief of the Hermopolitan Ennead, and the titles ascribed
to him by inscriptions maintaining his supremacy show that he also was con
sidered to have been the first king. One of the Ptolemies said of himself
that he came " as the Majesty of Thot, because he was the equal of Atumu,
hence the equal of Khopri, hence the equal of Ra." Atumu-Khopri-Ra
being the first earthly king, it follows that the Majesty of Thot, with whom
Ptolemy identifies himself, comparing himself to the three forms of the God
Ra, is also the first earthly king.

2 This conception of the primitive Egyptian world is clearly implied in

RA, THE FIRST KING OF EGYPT 229

at a world there was vegetable, animal, and human life.
Egypt was there, all complete, with her two chains of
mountains, her Nile, her cities, the people of her nomes,
and the nomes themselves. Then the soil was more
generous ; the harvests, without the labourer s toil, were
higher and more abundant ; l and when the Egyptians of
Pharaonic times wished to mark their admiration of any
person or thing, they said that the like had never been
known since the time of Ra. It is an illusion common to
all peoples ; as their insatiable thirst for happiness is never
assuaged by the present, they fall back upon the remotest
past in search of an age when that supreme felicity which
is only known to them as an ideal was actually enjoyed by
their ancestors. Ra dwelt in Heliopolis, and the most
ancient portion of the temple of the city, that known as
the "Mansion of the Prince" Hdfa Saru, passed for
having been his palace. His court was mainly composed
of gods and goddesses, and they as well as he were visible
to men. It contained also men who filled mindr offices

the very terms employed by the author of The Destruction of Men. Nuit does
not rise to form the sky until such time as Ra thinks of bringing his reign
to an end; that is to say, after Egypt had already been in existence for
many centuries. In chap. xvii. of the Book of the Dead (NEVILLE S edition,
vol. i. pi. xxiii. 11. 3-5) it is stated that the reign of Ra began in the times
when the upliftings had not yet taken place ; that is to say, before Shu had
separated Nuit from Siba, and forcibly uplifted her above the body of her
husband.

2 This is an ideal in accordance with the picture drawn of the fields of
lalu in chap. ex. of the Book of the Dead (NAVILLE S edition, vol. i. pis. cxxi.-
cxxiii.). As with the Paradise of most races, so the place of the Osirian
dead still possessed privileges which the earth had enjoyed during the
first years succeeding the creation ; that is to say, under the direct rule of
Ra.

230

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

about his person, prepared his food, received the offerings
of his subjects, attended to his linen and household affairs.
It was said that the oiru man the high priest of Ra, the
hanUstit his high priestess, and generally speaking all
the servants of the temple of Heliopolis, were either
directly descended from members of this first household

AT THE FIRST HOUR OF THE DAY THE SUN EMBARKS FOll HIS JOURNEY THROUGH

EGYPT. 1

establishment of the god, or had succeeded to their offices
in unbroken succession. In the morning he went forth
with his divine train, and, amid the acclamations of the
crowd, entered the bark in which he made his accustomed
circuit of the world, returning to his home at the end of
twelve hours after the accomplishment of his journey. He

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the scenes represented upon the
architraves of the pronaos at Edfu (RosELLiNi, Monumenti del Culto, pi.
xxxviii. No. 1).

RA AND ISIS 231

visited each province in turn, and in each he tarried for an
hour, to settle all disputed matters, as the final judge of
appeal. He gave audience to both small and great, he
decided their quarrels and adjudged their lawsuits, he
granted investiture of fiefs from the royal domains to those
who had deserved them, and allotted or confirmed to every
family the income needful for their maintenance. He
pitied the sufferings of his people, and did his utmost to
alleviate them ; he taught to all comers potent formulas
against reptiles and beasts of prey, charms to cast out evil
spirits, and the best recipes for preventing illness. His
incessant bounties left him at length with only one of his
talismans : the name given to him by his father and mother
at his birth, which they had revealed to him alone, and
which he kept concealed within his bosom lest some sorcerer
should get possession of it to use for the furtherance of
his evil spells.

But old age came on, and infirmities followed ; the
body of Ka grew bent, "his mouth trembled, his slaver
trickled down to earth and his saliva dropped upon the
ground." Isis, who had hitherto been a mere woman-
servant in the household of the Pharaoh, conceived the
project of stealing his secret from him, " that she might
possess the world and make herself a goddess by the
name of the august god." Force would have been unavail
ing ; all enfeebled as he was by reason of his years,
none was strong enough to contend successfully against
him. But Isis " was a woman more knowing in her
malice than millions of men, clever among millions of
the gods, equal to millions of spirits, to whom as unto

232 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

Ra nothing was unknown either in heaven or upon
earth." She contrived a most ingenious stratagem.
When man or god was struck down by illness, the only
chance of curing him lay in knowing his real name,
and thereby adjuring the evil being that tormented
him. Isis determined to cast a terrible malady upon
Ra, concealing its cause from him ; then to offer her
services as his nurse, and by means of his sufferings to
extract from him the mysterious word indispensable to
the success of the exorcism. She gathered up mud
impregnated with the divine saliva, and moulded of it
a sacred serpent which she hid in the dust of the road.
Suddenly bitten as he was setting out upon his daily
round, the god cried out aloud, " his voice ascended into
heaven and his Nine called : What is it ? what is it ?
and his gods : What is the matter ? what is the matter ?
but he could make them no answer so much did his lips
tremble, his limbs shake, and the venom take hold upon
his flesh as the Nile seizeth upon the land which it
invadeth." Presently he came to himself, and succeeded
in describing his sensations. " Something painful hath
stung me ; my heart perceiveth it, yet my two eyes
see it not ; my hand hath not wrought it, nothing that
I have made knoweth it what it is, yet have I never
tasted suffering like unto it, and there is no pain that
may overpass it. ... Fire it is not, water it is not,
yet is my heart in flames, my flesh trembleth, all my
members are full of sbiverings born of breaths of magic.
Behold ! let there be brought unto me children of the
gods of beneficent words, who know the power of their

RA DUPED AND ROBBED BY ISIS 233

mouths, and whose science reacheth unto heaven." They
came, these children of the gods, all with their books of
magic. There came Isis with her sorcery, her mouth
full of life-giving breaths, her recipe for the destruction
of pain, her words which pour life into breathless throats,
and she said : " What is it ? what is it, father of the
gods ? May it not be that a serpent hath wrought this
suffering in thee ; that one of thy children hath lifted
up his head against thee ? Surely he shall be over
thrown by beneficent incantations, and I will make him
to retreat at the sight of thy rays." On learning the
cause of his torment, the Sun-god is terrified, and begins
to lament anew: "I, then, as I went along the ways,
travelling through my double land of Egypt and over
my mountains, that I might look upon that which I
have made, I was bitten by a serpent that I saw not.
Fire it is not, water it is not, yet am I colder than
water, I burn more than fire, all my members stream
with sweat, I tremble, mine eye is not steady, no longer
can I discern the sky, drops roll from my face as in the
season of summer." Isis proposes her remedy, and
cautiously asks him his ineffable name. But he divines
her trick, and tries to evade it by an enumeration of his
titles. He takes the universe to witness that he is
called " Khopri in the morning, Ka at noon, Tiimu in
the evening." The poison did not recede, but steadily
advanced, and the great god was not eased. Then Isis
said to Ea : "Thy name was not spoken in that which
thou hast said. Tell it to me and the poison will depart ;
for he liveth upon whom a charm is pronounced in his

234 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

own name." The poison glowed like fire, it was strong
as the burning of flame, and the Majesty of Ra said, "I
grant thee leave that thou shouldest search within me,
mother Isis ! and that my name pass from my bosom
into thy bosom." In truth, the all-powerful name was
hidden within the body of the god, and could only be
extracted thence by means of a surgical operation similar
to that practised upon a corpse which, is about to be
mummified. Isis undertook it, carried it through success
fully, drove out the poison, and made herself a goddess
by virtue of the name. The cunning of a mere woman
had deprived Ra of his last talisman.

In course of time men perceived his decrepitude.
They took counsel against him: "Lo! his Majesty
waxeth old, his bones are of silver, his flesh is of gold,
his hair of lapis-lazuli." As soon as his Majesty per
ceived that which they were saying to each other, his
Majesty said to those who were of his train, " Call
together for me my Divine Eye, Shu, Tafnuit, Sibu, and
Nutt, the father and the mother gods who were with me
when I was in the Nu, with the god Nu. Let each
bring his cycle along with him ; then, when thou shalt
have brought them in secret, thou shalt take them to
the great mansion that they may lend me their counsel
and their consent, coming hither from the Nu into this
place where I have manifested myself." So the family
council comes together : the ancestors of Ra, and his
posterity still awaiting amid the primordial waters the
time of their manifestation his children Shu and Tafnuit,
his grandchildren Sibu and Nuit. They place themselves,

RA DESTROYS REBELLIOUS MEN 235

according to etiquette, on either side his throne, pros
trate, with their foreheads to the ground, and thus their
conference begins : " Nu, thou the eldest of the gods,
from whom I took my being, and ye the ancestor-
gods, behold! men who are the emanation of mine eye
have taken counsel together against me ! Tell me what
ye would do, for I have bidden you here before I slay
them, that I may hear what ye would say thereto."
Nu, as the eldest, has the right to speak first, and
demands that the guilty shall be brought to judgment
and formally condemned. " My son Ha, god greater
than the god who made him, older than the gods who
created him, sit thou upon thy throne, and great shall
be the terror when thine eye shall rest upon those who
plot together against thee ! " But Ea not unreasonably
fears that when men see the solemn pomp of royal
justice, they may suspect the fate that awaits them,
and "flee into the desert, their hearts terrified at that
which I have to say to them." The desert was even
then hostile to the tutelary gods of Egypt, and offered
an almost inviolable asylum to their enemies. The con
clave admits that the apprehensions of Ea are well
founded, and pronounces in favour of summary execu
tion; the Divine Eye is to be the executioner. "Let
it go forth that it may smite those who have devised
evil against thee, for there is no Eye more to be feared
than thine when it attacketh in the form of Hathor."
So the Eye takes the form of Hathor, suddenly falls
upon men, and slays them right and left with great
strokes of the knife. After some hours, Ea, who would

236

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

chasten but not destroy his children, commands her to
cease from her carnage ; but the goddess has tasted
blood, and refuses to obey him. " By thy life," she
replies, " when I slaughter men then is my heart right
joyful ! That is why she was afterwards called Sokhit

the slayer, and represented under
the form of a fierce lioness. Night
fall stayed her course in the
neighbourhood of Heracleopolis ;
all the way from Heliopolis she
had trampled through blood. As
soon as she had fallen asleep, Ra
hastily took effectual measures to
prevent her from beginning her
work again on the morrow. " He
said : Call on my behalf mes
sengers agile and swift, who go like
the wind. When these messengers
were straightway brought to him,
the Majesty of the god said : Let
them run to Elephantine and bring

SOKHIT, THE LIONESS- HEADED. 1

me mandragora in plenty. When they had brought him
the mandragora, the Majesty of this great god summoned

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a bronze statuette of the Saite period in
the Gizeh Museum (MAEIETTE, Album photographique du Musee de Boulaq,
pi. 6).

2 The mandragora of Elephantine was used in the manufacture of an
intoxicating and narcotic drink employed either in medicine or in magic.
In a special article, BEUGSCH has collected particulars preserved by the
texts as to the uses of this plant. It was not as yet credited with the
human form and the peculiar kind of life ascribed to it by western sorcerers.

THE GODDESS APPEASED 237

the miller which is in Heliopolis that he might bray it ;
and the women-servants having crushed grain for the
beer, the mandragora, and also human blood, were
mingled with the liquor, and thereof was made in all
seven thousand jars of beer." Ka himself examined
this delectable drink, and finding it to possess the
wished-for properties: " It is well, said he; there
with shall I save men from the goddess ; then, address
ing those of his train : Take these jars in your arms,
and carry them to the place where she has slaughtered
men. Ba, the king, caused dawn to break at midnight,
so that this philtre might be poured down upon the
earth ; and the fields were flooded with it to the depth
of four palms, according as it pleased the souls of his
Majesty." In the morning the goddess came, " that
she might return to her carnage, but she found that all
was flooded, and her countenance softened ; when she
had drunken, it was her heart that softened ; she went
away drunk, without further thought of men." There
was some fear lest her fury might return when the
fumes of drunkenness were past, and to obviate this
danger Ea instituted a rite, partly with the object of
instructing future generations as to the chastisement
which he had inflicted upon the impious, partly to con
sole Sokhit for her discomfiture. He decreed that " on
New Year s Day there should be brewed for her as many
jars of philtre as there were priestesses of the sun. That
was the origin of all those jars of philtre, in number
equal to that of the priestesses, which, at the feast of
Hathor, all men make from that day forth."

238 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OP EGYPT

Peace was re-established, but could it last long ?
Would not men, as soon as they had recovered from
their terror, betake themselves again to plotting against
the god ? Besides, Ka now felt nothing but disgust for
our race. The ingratitude of his children had wounded
him deeply ; he foresaw ever-renewed rebellions as his
feebleness became more marked, and he shrank from
having to order new massacres in which mankind would
perish altogether. " By my life," says he to the gods
who accompanied him, " my heart is too weary for me
to remain with mankind, and slay them until they are
no more : annihilation is not of the gifts that I love to
make." And the gods exclaim in surprise : " Breathe
not a word of thy weariness at a time when thou dost
triumph at thy pleasure." But Ea does not yield to
their representations ; he will leave a kingdom wherein
they murmur against him, and turning towards Nu he
says : " My limbs are decrepit for the first time ; I will
not go to any place where I can be reached." It was
no easy matter to find him an inaccessible retreat owing
to the imperfect state in which the universe had been
left by the first effort of the demiurge. Nu saw no
other way out of the difficulty than that of setting to
work to complete the creation. Ancient tradition had
imagined the separation of earth and sky as an act of
violence exercised by Shu upon Sibii and Nuit. History
presented facts after a less brutal fashion, and Shu
became a virtuous son who devoted his time and
strength to upholding Nuit, that he might thereby do
his father a service. Niiifc, for her part, showed herself

RA ASCENDS INTO HEAVEN 239

to be a devoted daughter whom there was no need to
treat roughly in order to teach her her duty; of herself
she consented to leave her husband, and place her
beloved ancestor beyond reach. "The Majesty of Nu
said: Son Shu, do as thy father Ea shall say; and
thou, daughter Nuit, place him upon thy back and
hold him suspended above the earth ! Nuifc said :
And how then, my father Nu ? Thus spake Nuit,
and she did that which Nu commanded her ; she
changed herself into a cow, and placed the Majesty of
Ea upon her back. When those men who had not been
slain came to give thanks to Ea, behold ! they found
him no longer in his palace ; but a cow stood there,
and they perceived him upon the back of the cow."
They found him so resolved to depart that they did
not try to turn him from his purpose, but only desired
to give him such a proof of their repentance as should
assure them of the complete pardon of their crime.
" They said unto him : Wait until the morning, O
Ea ! our lord, and we will strike down thine enemies
who have taken counsel against thee. So his Majesty
returned to his mansion, descended from the cow, went
in along with them, and earth was plunged into dark
ness. But when there was light upon earth the next
morning, the men went forth with their bows and
their arrows, and began to shoot at the enemy. Where
upon the Majesty of this god said unto them : * Your
sins are remitted unto you, for sacrifice precludes the
execution of the guilty. And this was the origin upon
earth of sacrifices in which blood was shed."

240 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

Thus it was that when on the point of separating for
ever, the god and men came to an understanding as to
the terms of their future relationship. Men offered to
the god the life of those who had offended him. Human
sacrifice was in their eyes the obligatory sacrifice, the
only one which could completely atone for the wrongs
committed against the godhead; man alone was worthy
to wash away with his blood the sins of men. 1 For this
one time the god accepted the expiation just as it was
offered to him ; then the repugnance which he felt to
killing his children overcame him, he substituted beast
for man, and decided that oxen, gazelles, birds, should
henceforth furnish the material for sacrifice. 2 This point
settled, he again mounted the cow, who rose, supported
on her four legs as on so many pillars ; and her belly,

1 This legend, which seeks to explain the discontinuance of human
sacrifices among the Egyptians, affords direct proof of their existence in
primitive times. This is confirmed by many facts. We shall see that
uashMti laid in graves were in place of the male or female slaves who were
originally slaughtered at the tombs of the rich and noble that they might go
to serve their masters in the next world. Even in Thebes, under the
XIX th dynasty, certain rock-cut tombs contain scenes which might lead
us to believe that occasionally at least human victims were sent to doubles
of distinction. During this same period, moreover, the most distinguished
hostile chiefs taken in war were still put to death before the gods. In
several towns, as at Eilithyia and at Heliopolis, or before certain gods,
such as Osiris or Kronos-Sibu, human sacrifice lasted until near Roman
times. But generally speaking it was very rare. Almost everywhere
cakes of a particular shape, and called Tre/x/Aara, or else animals, had been
substituted for man.

2 It was asserted that the partisans of Ap6pi and of Sit, who were the
enemies of Ra, Osiris, and the other gods, had taken refuge in the bodies
of certain animals. Hence, it was really human or divine victims which
were offered when beasts were slaughtered in sacrifice before the altars.

THE LEGEND OF SHU AND SIBU 241

stretched out above the earth like a ceiling, formed the
sky. He busied himself with organizing the new world
which he found on her back ; he peopled it with many
beings, chose two districts in which to establish his abode,
the Field of Eeeds SokMt laluand the Field of Best
Sokhfa Hotpit and suspended the stars which were to
give light by night. All this is related with many plays
upon words, intended, according to Oriental custom, as
explanations of the names which the legend assigned to
the different regions of heaven. At sight of a plain whose
situation pleased him, he cried : " The Field rests in the
distance ! -and that was the origin of the Field of Eest.
He added : " There will I gather plants ! " and from
this the Field of Keeds took its name. While he gave
himself up to this philological pastime, Nuit, suddenly
transported to unaccustomed heights, grew frightened,
and cried for help: "For pity s sake give me supports to
sustain me ! This was the origin of the support-gods.
They came and stationed themselves by each of her four
legs, steadying these with their hands, and keeping
constant watch over them. As this was not enough to
reassure the good beast, " Ea said, My son Shu, place
thyself beneath my daughter Nuit, and keep watch on
both sides over the supports, who live in the twilight ;
hold thou her up above thy head, and be her guardian !
Shu obeyed ; Nuit composed herself, and the world, now
furnished with the sky which it had hitherto lacked,
assumed its present symmetrical form.

Shu and Sibu succeeded Ra, but did not acquire so
lasting a popularity as their great ancestor. Nevertheless

VOL. I. R

242

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

they had their annals, fragments of which have come
down to us. Their power also extended over the whole
universe : " The Majesty of Shu was the excellent king
of the sky, of the earth, of Hades, of the water, of the
winds, of the inundation, of the two chains of mountains,

NL iT, THE COW, SUSTAINED ABOVE THE EARTH BY

AND THE SUPPORT-GODS. 1

of the sea, governing with a true voice according to the
precepts of his father Ka-Harmakhis." Only "the children
of the serpent Apopi, the impious ones who haunt the
solitary places and the deserts," disavowed his authority.
Like the Bedawln of later times, they suddenly streamed

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin.

POWER OF THE GODS 243

in by the isthmus routes, went up into Egypt under
cover of night, slew and pillaged, and then hastily re
turned to their fastnesses with the booty which they had
carried off. From sea to sea Ea had fortified the eastern
frontier against them. He had surrounded the principal
cities with walls, embellished them with temples, and
placed within them those mysterious talismans more
powerful for defence than a garrison of men. Thus Ait-
nobsu, near the mouth of the Wady-Tumilat, possessed
one of the rods of the Sun-god, also the living uraaus of
his crown whose breath consumes all that it touches,
and, finally, a lock of his hair, which, being cast into the
waters of a lake, was changed into a hawk-headed crocodile
to tear the invader in pieces. 1 The employment of these
talismans was dangerous to those unaccustomed to use
them, even to the gods themselves. Scarcely was Sibu
enthroned as the successor of Shu, who, tired of reigning,
had reascended into heaven in a nine days tempest, before
he began his inspection of the eastern marches, and caused
the box in which was kept the uraeus of Ha to be opened.
" As soon as the living viper had breathed its breath
against the Majesty of Sibu there was a great disaster-
great indeed, for those who were in the train of the god
perished, and his Majesty himself was burned in that day.
When his Majesty had fled to the north of Ait-nobsu,

1 Egyptians of all periods never shrank from such marvels. One of the
tales of the Theban empire tells us of a piece of wax which, on being
thrown into the water, changed into a living crocodile capable of devouring
a man. The talismans which protected Egypt against invasion are mentioned
by the Pseudo-Callisthenes, who attributes their invention to Nectanebo.
Arab historians often refer to them.

244

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OP EGYPT

pursued by the fire of this magic uraeus, behold ! when
he came to the fields of henna, the pain of his burn was
not yet assuaged, and the gods who were behind him
said unto him : Sire ! let them take the lock of Ka
which is there, when thy Majesty shall go to see it and
its mystery, and his Majesty shall be healed as soon as
it shall be placed upon thee. So the Majesty of Sibu

THREE OF THE DIVINE AMULETS PRESERVED IN THE TEMPLE OF AIT-NOBSU AT THE

ROMAN PERIOD.

caused the magic lock to be brought to Piarifc, the
lock for which was made that great reliquary of hard
stone which is hidden in the secret place of Piarit, in
the district of the divine lock of the Lord Ea, - - and
behold ! this fire departed from the members of the
Majesty of Sibu. And many years afterwards, when this
lock, which had thus belonged to Sibu, was brought back
to Piarifc in Aft-nobsu, and cast into the great lake of Piarit

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by GRIFFITH. The three
talismans here represented are two crowns, each in a naos, and the burning
fiery uraeus.

OSIRIS AND SIT 245

whose name is Ait-tostesu, the dwelling of waves, that
it might be purified, behold ! this lock became a crocodile :
it flew to the water and became Sobku, the divine crocodile
of Ait-nobsu." In this way the gods of the solar dynasty
from generation to generation multiplied talismans and
enriched the sanctuaries of Egypt with relics.

Were there ever duller legends and a more senile
phantasy! They did not spring spontaneously from the
lips of the people, but were composed at leisure by priests
desirous of enhancing the antiquity of their cult, and
augmenting the veneration of its adherents in order to
increase its importance. Each city wished it to be un
derstood that its feudal sanctuary was founded upon the
very day of creation, that its privileges had been extended
or confirmed during the course of the first divine dynasty,
and that these pretensions were supported by the presence
of objects in its treasury which had belooged to the oldest
of the king-gods. Such was the origin of tales in which
the personage of the beneficent Pharaoh is often depicted
in ridiculous fashion. Did we possess all the sacred
archives, we should frequently find them quoting as
authentic history more than one document as artificial
as the chronicle of Ait-nobsu. When we come to the
later members of the Ennead, there is a change in the
character and in the form of these tales. Doubtless Osiris
and Sit did not escape unscathed out of the hands of the
theologians ; but even if sacerdotal interference spoiled
the legend concerning them, it did not altogether disfigure
it. Here and there in it is still noticeable a sincerity
of feeling and liveliness of imagination such as are never

246 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

found in those of Shu and of Sibii. This arises from the fact
that the functions of these gods left them strangers, or all
but strangers, to the current affairs of the world. Shu was
the stay, Sibu the material foundation of the world ; and so
long as the one bore the weight of the firmament without
bending, and the other continued to suffer the tread of
human generations upon his back, the devout took no
more thought of them than they themselves took thought
of the devout. The life of Osiris, on the other hand, was
intimately mingled with that of the Egyptians, and his
most trivial actions immediately reacted upon their
fortunes. They followed the movements of his waters ;
they noted the turning-points in his struggles against
drought ; they registered his yearly decline, yearly com
pensated by his aggressive returns and his intermittent
victories over Typhon ; his proceedings and his character
were the subject of their minute study. If his waters
almost invariably rose upon the appointed day and
extended over the black earth of the valley, this was
no mechanical function of a being to whom the con
sequences of his conduct are indifferent ; he acted upon
reflection, and in fall consciousness of the service that
he rendered. He knew that by spreading the inundation
he prevented the triumph of the desert ; he was life, he
was goodness Onnofriu and Isis, as the partner of his
labours, became like him the type of perfect goodness.
But while Osiris developed for the better, Sit was trans
formed for the worse, and increased in wickedness as
his brother gained in purity and moral elevation. In
proportion as the person of Sit grew more defined, and

NUIT S FIVE CHILDREN 247

stood out more clearly, the evil within him contrasted
more markedly with the innate goodness of Osiris, and
what had been at first an instinctive struggle between
two beings somewhat vaguely denned - - the desert and
the Nile, water and drought was changed into conscious
and deadly enmity. No longer the conflict of two elements,
it was war between two gods ; one labouring to produce
abundance, while the other strove to do away with it ;
one being all goodness and life, while the other was evil
and death incarnate.

A very ancient legend narrates that the birth of Osiris
and his brothers took place during the five additional days
at the end of the year ; a subsequent legend explained how
Nuit and Sibu had contracted marriage against the express
wish of Ra, and without his knowledge. When he became
aware of it he fell into a violent rage, and cast a spell over
the goddess to prevent her giving birth to her children in
any month of any year whatever. But Thot took pity
upon her, and playing at draughts with the moon won from
it in several games one seventy-second part of its fires, out
of which he made five whole days ; and as these were not
included in the ordinary calendar, Nuit could then bring
forth her five chilchfen, one after another : Osiris, Haroris,
Sit, Isis, and Nephthys. Osiris was beautiful of face, but
with a dull and black complexion ; his height exceeded five
and a half yards. 1 He was born at Thebes, in the first of

1 As a matter of fact, Osiris is often represented with black or green
hands and face, as is customary for gods of the dead ; it was probably this
peculiarity which suggested the popular idea of his black complexion.
A magic papyrus of Ramesside times fixes the stature of the god at seven

248 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

the additional days, and straightway a mysterious voice
announced that the lord of all nibii-r-zaru had appeared.
The good news was hailed with shouts of joy, followed by
tears and lamentations when it became known with what
evils he was menaced. 1 The echo reached Ea in his far-off
dwelling, and his heart rejoiced, notwithstanding the curse
which he had laid upon Nuit. He commanded the
presence of his great-grandchild in Xo is, and unhesitatingly
acknowledged him as the heir to his throne. Osiris had
married his sister Isis, even, so it was said, w T hile both of
them were still within their mother s womb ; 2 and when he
became king he made her queen regnant and the partner of
all his undertakings. The Egyptians were as yet but half
civilized ; they were cannibals, and though occasionally
they lived upon the fruits of the earth, they did not know
how to cultivate them. Osiris taught them the art of
making agricultural implements the plough and the

cubits, and a phrase in a Ptolemaic inscription places it at eight cubits,
six palms, three fingers.

1 One variant of the legend told that a certain Pamylis of Thebes
having gone to draw water had heard a voice proceeding from the temple
of Zeus, which ordered him to proclaim aloud to the world the birth of
the great king, the beneficent Osiris. He had. received the child from
the hands of Kronos, brought it up to youth, and to him the Egyptians
had consecrated the feast of Pamylies, which resembled the Phallophoros
festival of the Greeks.

2 De Iside et Osiride, LEEMANS edition, 12, pp. 20, 21. Haroeris, the
Apollo of the Greeks, was supposed to be the issue of a marriage con
summated before the birth of his parents while they were still within the
womb of their mother Rhea-Nuit. This was a way of connecting the
personage of Haroeris with the Osirian myths by confounding him with
the homonymous Harsiesis, the son of Isis, who became the son of Osiris
through his mother s marriage with that god.

OSIRIS AND ISIS 249

hoe, field labour, the rotation of crops, the harvesting of
wheat and barley, 1 and vine culture. Isis weaned them
from cannibalism, healed their diseases by means of
medicine or of magic, united women to men in legitimate
marriage, and showed them how to grind grain between
two flat stones and to prepare bread for the household.
She invented the loom with the help of her sister
Nephthys, and was the first to weave and bleach linen.
There was no worship of the gods before Osiris established
it, appointed the offerings, regulated the order of cere
monies, and composed the texts and melodies of the
liturgies. He built cities, among them Thebes itself,
according to some; though others declared that he was
born there. As he had been the model of a just and pacific
king, so did he desire to be that of a victorious conqueror
of nations ; and, placing the regency in the hands of Isis,
he went forth to war against Asia, accompanied by Thot
the ibis and the jackal Anubis. He made little or no use
offeree and arms, but he attacked men by gentleness and
persuasion, softened them with songs in which voices were
accompanied by instruments, and taught them also the arts
which he had made known to the Egyptians. No country
escaped his beneficent action, and he did not return to the
banks of the Nile until he had traversed and civilized the
world from one horizon to the other.

1 DIODORUS even ascribes to him the discovery of barley and of wheat ;
this is consequent upon the identification of Isis with Demeter by the
Greeks. According to the historian, Leo of Pella, the goddess twined
herself a crown of ripe ears and placed it upon her head one day when she
was sacrificing to her parents.

250

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

Sit-Typhon was red-haired and white-skinned, of violent,
gloomy, and jealous temper. 1 Secretly he aspired to the
crown, and nothing but the vigilance of Isis had kept him
from rebellion during the absence of his brother. The
rejoicings which celebrated the king s return to Memphis
provided Sit with his opportunity for seizing the throne.
He invited Osiris to a banquet along with seventy-two

officers whose support he had
ensured, made a wooden chest
of cunning workmanship and
ordered that it should be
brought in to him, in the
midst of the feast. As all
admired its beauty, he sport
ively promised to present it
to any one among the guests
whom it should exactly fit.
All of them tried it, one after
another, and all unsuccess
fully ; but when Osiris lay
THE OSIBIAN TRIAD HORus, OSIRIS, isis. 2 down within it, immediately

1 The colour of his hair was compared with that of a red-haired ass,
and on that account the ass was sacred to him. As to his violent and
jealous disposition, see the opinion of DIODORUS SICULUS, book i. 21, and the
picture drawn by SYNESIUS in his pamphlet JEgyptius. It was told how
he tore his mother s bowels at birth, and made his own way into the world
through her side.

2 Drawing by Boudier of the gold group in the Louvre Museum. The
drawing is made from a photograph which belonged to M. de Witte, before
the monument was acquired by E. de Rouge in 1871. The little square pillar
of lapis-lazuli, upon which Osiris squats, is wrongly set up, and the names and
titles of King Osorkon, the dedicator of the triad, are placed upside down.

OSIRIS SLAIN BY SIT 251

the conspirators shut to the lid, nailed it firmly down, sol
dered it together with melted lead, and then threw it into
the Tanitic branch of the Nile, which carried it to the sea.
The news of the crime spread terror on all sides. The
gods friendly to Osiris feared the fate of their master, and
hid themselves within the bodies of animals to escape the
malignity of the new king. Isis cut off her hair, rent her
garments, and set out in search of the chest. She found it
aground near the mouth of the river l under the shadow of a
gigantic acacia, deposited it in a secluded place where no
one ever came, and then took refuge in Buto, her own
domain and her native city, whose marshes protected her
from the designs of Typhon even as in historic times they
protected more than one Pharaoh from the attacks of his
enemies. There she gave birth to the young Horus,
nursed and reared him in secret among the reeds, far from
the machinations of the wicked one. 2 But it happened that
Sit, when hunting by moonlight, caught sight of the chest,
opened it, and recognizing the corpse, cut it up into

1 At this point the legend of the Sai te and Greek period interpolates
a whole chapter, telling how the chest was carried out to sea and cast upon
the Phoenician coast near to Byblos. The acacia, a kind of heather or
broom in this case, grew up enclosing the chest within its trunk. This
addition to the primitive legend must date from the XVIII th to the XX th
dynasties, when Egypt had extensive relations with the peoples of Asia.
No trace of it whatever has hitherto been found upon Egyptian monuments
strictly so called ; not even on the latest.

2 The opening illustration of this chapter (p. 221) is taken from a
monument at Philje, and depicts Isis among the reeds. The representation
of the goddess as squatting upon a mat probably gave rise to the legend of
the floating isle of Khemmis, which HECATJEUS OF MILETUS had seen upon
the lake of Buto, but whose existence was denied by HERODOTUS notwith
standing the testimony of Hecatseus.

252 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

fourteen pieces, which he scattered abroad at random.
Once more Isis set forth on her woeful pilgrimage. She
recovered all the parts of the body excepting one only,
which the oxyrhynchus had greedily devoured ; ] and with
the help of her sister Nephthys, her son Horus, Anubis,
and Thot, she joined together and embalmed them, and
made of this collection of his remains an imperishable
mummy, capable of sustaining for ever the soul of a god.
On his coming of age, Horus called together all that were
left of the loyal Egyptians and formed them into an
army. 2 His " Followers "Shosuu Horn defeated the
Accomplices of Sit" Samiii Sit who were now driven
in their turn to transform themselves into gazelles,
crocodiles and serpents, animals which were henceforth
regarded as unclean and Typhonian. For three days the
two chiefs had fought together under the forms of men and
of hippopotami, when Isis, apprehensive as to the issue of
the duel, determined to bring it to an end. " Lo ! she

1 This part of the legend was so thoroughly well known, that by the
time of the XIX th dynasty it suggested incidents in popular literature.
When Bitiu, the hero of The Tale of tlie Two Brothers, mutilated himself
to avoid the suspicion of adultery, he cast his bleeding member into the
water, and the Oxyrhynchus devoured it.

Towards the Grecian period there was here interpolated an account
of how Osiris had returned from the world of the dead to arm his son and
train him to fight. According to this tale he had asked Horus which of all
animals seemed to him most useful in time of war, and Horus chose the
horse rather than the lion, because the lion avails for the weak or cowardly
in need of help, whereas the horse is used for the pursuit and destruction
of the enemy. Judging from this reply that Horus was ready to dare all,
Osiris allowed him to enter upon the war. The mention of the horse affords
sufficient proof that this episode is of comparatively late origin (cf. p. 41,
for the date at which the horse was acclimatized in Egypt).

BREAKING OF THE FETTERS

253

caused chains to descend upon them, and made them to

drop upon Horus. Thereupon Horus prayed aloud, saying :

I am thy son Horus! Then Isis spake unto the fetters,

saying ; Break, and unloose yourselves from

my son Horus ! She made other fetters to

descend, and let them fall upon her brother

Sit. Forthwith he lifted up his voice and cried

out in pain, and she spake unto the fetters

and said unto them : Break ! Yea, when

Sit prayed unto her many times, saying :

c "Wilt thou not have pity upon the brother of

thy son s mother ? " then her heart was filled

with compassion, and she cried to the fetters :

Break, for he is my eldest brother ! and the

fetters unloosed themselves from him, and the

two foes again stood face to face like two

men who will not come to terms. "Horus,

furious at seeing his mother deprive him of his

prey, turned upon her like a panther of the

South. She fled before him on that day when

battle was waged with Sit the Violent, and he

cut off her head. But Thot transformed her

by his enchantments and made a cow s head for

her," thereby identifying her with her companion, Hathor.

The war went on, with all its fluctuating fortunes, till the

gods at length decided to summon both rivals before their

tribunal. According to a very ancient tradition, the

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze statuette of Saite period in
the Gizeh Museum (MARIETTE, Album pJiotograpTiique du musse de Boulaq,
pi. 5, No. 167).

ISIS-HAT110U, COW-
HEADED. *

254 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

combatants chose the ruler of a neighbouring city, Thot,
lord of Hermopolis Parva, as the arbitrator of their quarrel.
Sit was the first to plead, and he maintained that Horus
was not the son of Osiris, but a bastard, whom Isis had
conceived after the death of her husband. Horus
triumphantly vindicated the legitimacy of his birth ; and
Thot condemned Sit to restore, according to some, the
whole of the inheritance which he had wrongly retained,
according to others, part of it only. The gods ratified the
sentence, and awarded to the arbitrator the title of
Uapirahuhui : he who judges between two parties. A
legend of more recent origin, and circulated after the
worship of Osiris had spread over all Egypt, affirmed that
the case had remained within the jurisdiction of Sibu, who
was father to the one, and grandfather to the other party.
Sibu, however, had pronounced the same judgment as Thot,
and divided the kingdom into halves poshui; Sit retained
the valley from the neighbourhood of Memphis to the first
cataract, while Horus entered into possession of the Delta.
Egypt henceforth consisted of two distinct kingdoms, of
which one, that of the North, recognized Horus, the son of
Isis, as its patron deity ; and the other, that of the South,
placed itself under the protection of Sit Niibiti, the god of
Ombos. 1 The moiety of Horus, added to that of Sit, formed

1 Another form of the legend gives the 27th Athyr as the date of
the judgment, assigning Egypt to Horus, and to Sit Nubia, or Dosliirit, the
red land. It must have arisen towards the age of the XVIII th dynasty,
at a time when their piety no longer allowed the devout to admit that
the murderer of Osiris could be the legitimate patron of half the country.
So the half belonging to Sit was then placed either in Nubia or in the western
desert, which had, indeed, been reckoned as his domain from earliest times.

DEATH OF OSIRIS 255

the kingdom which Sibu had inherited ; but his children
failed to keep it together, though it was afterwards reunited
under Pharaohs of human race.

The three gods who preceded Osiris upon the throne
had ceased to reign, but not to live. Ea had taken refuge
in heaven, disgusted with his own creatures ; Shu had
disappeared in the midst of a tempest ; and Sibu had
quietly retired within his palace when the time of his
sojourning upon earth had been fulfilled. Not that there
was no death, for death, too, together with all other
things and beings, had come into existence in the be
ginning, but while cruelly persecuting both man and
beast, had for a while respected the gods. Osiris was the
first among them to be struck down, and hence to require
funeral rites. He also was the first for whom family piety
sought to provide a happy life beyond the tomb. Though
he was king of the living and the dead at Mendes by
virtue of the rights of all the feudal gods in their own
principalities, his sovereignty after death exempted him
no more than the meanest of his subjects from that painful
torpor into which all mortals fell on breathing their last.
But popular imagination could not resign itself to his
remaining in that miserable state for ever. What would
it have profited him to have Isis the great Sorceress for
his wife, the wise Horus for his son, two master-magicians
Thot the Ibis and the jackal Anubis for his servants,
if their skill had not availed to ensure him a less gloomy
and less lamentable after-life than that of men. Anubis
had long before invented the art of mummifying, and his
mysterious science had secured the everlasting existence

256

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

of the flesh ; but at what a price ! For the breathing,
warm, fresh- coloured body, spontaneous in movement and

I 1 , . . , i i i i j L i I i I " . ! i I i .1 * I I . l i I I 1 : M I i i i I l ! !! &lt; I I.J I I J H" l I 1 T n I | II I .I r I

THE OSIRIAN MUMMY PREPARED AND LAID UPON THE FUNERARY COUCH BY THE

JACKAL ANUBIS. 1

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from ROSELLINI, Monumenti Civili, pi.
cxxxiv. 2. While Anubis is stretching out his hands to lay out the
mummy on its couch, the soul is hovering above its breast, and holding
to its nostrils the sceptre, and the wind-filled sail which is the emblem
of breath and of the new life,

THE OSIRIAN EMBALMMENT

257

function, was substituted an immobile, cold and blackish
mass, a sufficient basis for the mechanical continuity of
the double, but which that double could neither raise nor
guide ; whose weight paralysed and whose inertness con
demned it to vegetate in darkness, without pleasure and
almost without consciousness of existence. Thot, Isis,
and Horus applied themselves in the case of Osiris to
ameliorating the discomfort and constraint entailed by the
more primitive embalmment. They did not dispense with

THE RECEPTION OF THE MUMMY BY ANUBIS AT TIIK DOOIl OF THE TOMB, AND THE

OPENING OF THE MOUTH. 1

the manipulations instituted by Anubis, but endued them
with new power by means of magic. They inscribed the
principal bandages with protective figures and formulas ;
they decorated the body with various amulets of specific
efficacy for its different parts ; they drew numerous scenes
of earthly existence and of the life beyond the tomb upon
the boards of the coifin and upon the walls of the sepulchral
chamber. When the body had been made imperishable,

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a painting in the tomb of a king in
the Theban necropolis.

VOL. I.

258 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

they sought to restore one by one all the faculties of
which their previous operations had deprived it. The
mummy was set up at the entrance to the vault ; the
statue representing the living person was placed beside it,
and semblance was made of opening the mouth, eyes, and
ears, of loosing the arms and legs, of restoring breath to
the throat and movement to the heart. The incantations
by which these acts were severally accompanied were so
powerful that the god spoke and ate, lived and heard,
and could use his limbs as freely as though he had never
been steeped in the bath of the embalmer. He might
have returned to his place among men, and various legends
prove that he did occasionally appear to his faithful
adherents. But, as his ancestors before him, he preferred
to leave their towns and withdraw into his own domain.
The cemeteries of the inhabitants of Busiris and of Mendes
were called Soklut lalu, the Meadow of Reeds, and SokMt
Ilotpii, the Meadow of Rest. They were secluded amid
the marshes, in small archipelagoes of sandy islets where
the dead bodies, piled together, rested in safety from the
inundations. This was the first kingdom of the dead
Osiris, but it was soon placed elsewhere, as the nature of
the surrounding districts and the geography of the adjacent
countries became better known ; at first perhaps on the
Phoenician shore beyond the sea, and then in the sky, in
the Milky Way, between the North and the East, but
nearer to the North than to the East. This kingdom
was not gloomy and mournful like that of the other dead
gods, Sokaris or Khontamentifc, but was lighted by sun
and moon; the heat of the day was tempered by the

THE KINGDOM OF OSIRIS

259

steady breath of the north wind, and its crops grew and
throve abundantly. Thick walls served as fortifications
against the attacks of Sit and evil genii; a palace like
that of the Pharaohs stood in the midst of delightful
gardens ; and there, among his own people, Osiris led a

OSIRIS IX HADES, ACCOMPANIED BY ISIS, AMEXTIT, AND N EPHTHYS, KECI-.IVES TUB

II -MAGE OF TUUTH. 1

tranquil existence, enjoying in succession all the pleasures
of earthly life without any of its pains.

The goodness which had gained him the title of
Onnophris while he sojourned here below, inspired him

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Daniel Heron, taken
in 1881 in the temple of Seti I. at Abydos.

200

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

with the desire and suggested the means of opening the
gates of his paradise to the souls of his former subjects.
Souls did not enter into it unexamined, nor without trial.
Each of them had first to prove that during its earthly
life it had belonged to a friend, or, as the Egyptian texts
have it, to a vassal of Osiris ainakku khir Osiri one of

those who had served
Horus in his exile and had
rallied to his banner from
the very beginning of the
Typhonian wars. These
were those followers of
Horus Sliosua Horn so
often referred to in the lite
rature of historic times. 1
Horus, their master, hav
ing loaded them with
favours during life, decided
to extend to them after death the same privileges
which lie had conferred upon his father. He convoked
around the corpse the gods who had worked with him
at the embalmment of Osiris : Anubis and Thot, Isis
and Nephthys, and his four children Hapi, Qabhsonuf,

1 Cf. p. 252. The Folloicers of Horns, i.e. those who had followed Horus
during the Typhonian wars, are mentioned in a Turin fragment of the
Canon of the Kings, in which the author summarizes the chronology of
the divine period. Like the reign of Ra, the time in which the followers
of Horus were supposed to have lived was for the Egyptians of classic
times the ultimate point beyond which history did not reach.

2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from NAVILLE Das jEgypfoche Todteribuch }
vol. i. pi. cxxviii. A.i.

THE DECEASED CLIMBING THE SLOPE OF THE
MOUNTAIN OF THK WEST. 2

THE FOLLOWERS OF HORUS

261

Amsifc, and Tiumautf to whom he had entrusted the
charge of the heart and viscera. They all performed
their functions exactly as before, repeated the same
ceremonies, and recited the same formulas at the same
stages of the operations, and so effectively that the dead
man became a real
Osiris under their
hands, having a true
voice, and hence
forth combining the
name of the god
with his own. He
had been Sakhomka
or Menkauri ; he be
came the Osiris Sak
homka, or the Osiris
Menkauri, true of
voice. Horus and
his companions then
celebrated the rites
consecrated to the
" Opening of the
Mouth and the Eyes : " animated the statue of the deceased,
and placed the mummy in the tomb, where Anubis received
it in his arms. Kecalled to life and movement, the double
reassumed, one by one, all the functions of being, came
and went and took part in the ceremonies of the worship

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from GUIEYSSE-LEFEBURE, Le Papyrus &lt;Je
Soutimes, pi. viii. The outlines of the original have unfortunately been
restored and enfeebled by the copyist.

THE MUMMV OF sC miOSi) fLA.sl l.NU 1.16 SOl L IN KIS

ASMS. 1

262

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

which was rendered to him in his tomb. There he might
be seen accepting the homage of his kindred, and clasping
to his breast his soul under the form of a great human-
headed bird with features the counterpart of his own.
After being equipped with the formulas and amulets
wherewith his prototype, Osiris, had been furnished, he
set forth to seek the u Field of Eeeds." The way was

long and arduous, strewn with perils to
which he must have succumbed at the

very first stages
had he not been
carefully warned
beforehand and
armed against
them. A papyrus
placed with the
mummy in its
coffin contained
the needful topo
graphical direc-

CYNOCEPHALI DRAWING THE NET IN WHICH SOULS AHE -.

CAUGHT. 1

words, in order

that he might neither stray nor perish by the way.
The wiser Egyptians copied out the principal chapters
for themselves, or learned them by heart while yet in life,

1 Brawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a facsimile by Deveria (E. DE
ROUGE, Etudes sur le Eituel Funeraire, pi. iv. No. 4). Ignorant souls
fished for by the cynocephali are here represented as fish ; but the soul of
Nofirubnu, instructed in the protective formulas, preserves its human
form.

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD 263

in order to be prepared for the life beyond. Those who
had not taken this precaution studied after death the
copy with which they were provided ; and since few
Egyptians could read, a priest, or relative of the deceased,
preferably his son, recited the prayers in the mummy s
ear, that he might learn them before he was carried away
to the cemetery. If the double obeyed the prescriptions
of the "Book of the Dead to the letter, he reached his
goal without fail. 1 On leaving the tomb he turned his
back on the valley, and staff in hand climbed the hills
which bounded it on the west, plunging boldly into- the
desert, where some bird, or even a kindly insect such as
a praying mantis, a grasshopper, or a butterfly, served
as his guide. Soon he came to one of those sycamores
which grow in the sand far away from the Nile, and are
regarded as magic trees by the fellahin. Out of the foliage
a goddess Niiifc, Hathor, or Nit half emerged, and offered
him a dish of fruit, loaves of bread, and a jar of water.

Manuscripts of this work represent about nine-tenths of the papyri
hitherto discovered. They are not all equally full ; complete copies are
still relatively scarce, and most of those found with mummies contain
nothing but extracts of varying length. The book itself was studied by
CHAMPOLLION, who called it the Funerary Ritual ; Lepsius afterwards gave
it the less definite name of Boole of the Dead, which seems likely to prevail.
It has been chiefly known from the hieroglyphic copy at Turin, which
LEPSIUS traced and had lithographed in 1841, under the title of Das
Todtenbuch der jEyypter, In 1865, E. DU ROUGE began to publish a
hieratic copy in the Louvre, but since 1886 there has been a critical edition
of manuscripts of the Theban period most carefully collated by E. NAVILLE,
Das JEgypfache Todtenbuch der XVIII bis XX Dynastic, Berlin, 1886,
2 vols. of plates in folio, and 1 vol. of Introduction in 4 to. On this edition
see MASPEBO, JZtudes de Hfythologie et d Archeologie JZgyptiennes, vol. i.
pp. 325-387.

204

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OP EGYPT

By accepting these gifts lie became the guest of the
goddess, and could never more retrace his steps 1 without
special permission. Beyond the sycamore were lands of

THE DECEASED AND HIS WIFE SEATED IN FRONT OF THE SYCAMORE OF NUIT AND
RECEIVING THE BREAD AND WATER OF THE NEXT WORLD. 2

1 MASPERO, Etudes de Myfltologie ct d Archeologie jZgyptienncs, vol. ii.
pp. 224-227. It was not in Egypt alone that the fact of accepting food
offered by a god of the dead constituted a recognition of suzerainty, and
prevented the human soul from returning to the world of the living.
Traces of this belief are found everywhere, in modern as in ancient times,
and E. B. TYLOR has collected numerous examples of the same in Primitive
Culture, 2nd edit., vol. ii. pp. 47, 51, 52.

2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coloured plate in ROSELLINI,
Monumenti civili., pi. cxxxiv. 3.

THE JOURN T EYINGS OF THE SOUL 265

terror, infested by serpents and ferocious beasts, furrowed
by torrents of boiling water, intersected by ponds and
marshes where gigantic monkeys cast their nets. Ignorant
souls, or those ill prepared for the struggle, had no easy
work before them when they imprudently entered upon it.
Those who were not overcome by hunger and thirst at
the outset were bitten by a uraus, or horned viper, hidden
with evil intent below the sand, and perished in convulsions
from the poison ; or crocodiles seized as many of them as
they could lay hold of at the fords of rivers ; or cynocephali
netted and devoured them indiscriminately along with the
fish into which the partisans of Typhon were transformed.
They came safe and sound out of one peril only to fall
into another, and infallibly succumbed before they were
half through their journey. But, on the other hand, the
double who was equipped and instructed, and armed with
the true voice, confronted each foe with the phylactery
and the incantation by which his enemy was held in check.
As soon as he caught sight of one of them, he recited
the appropriate chapter from his book, he loudly pro
claimed himself Ka, Tumu, Horus, or Khopri that god
whose name and attributes were best fitted to repel the
immediate danger and flames withdrew at his voice,
monsters fled or sank paralysed, the most cruel of genii
drew in their claws and lowered their arms before him.
He compelled crocodiles to turn away their heads ; he
transfixed serpents with his lance ; he supplied himself
at pleasure with all the provisions that he needed, and
gradually ascended the mountains which surround the
world, sometimes alone, and fighting his way step by step,

200

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OP EGYPT

sometimes escorted by beneficent divinities. Halfway up
the slope was the good cow Hathor, the lady of the West,
in meadows of tall plants where every evening she received
the sun at his setting. If the dead man knew how to
ask it according to the prescribed rite, she would take
him upon her shoulders 1 and carry him across the accursed

countries at full speed. Having
reached the North, he paused at
the edge of an immense lake, the
lake of Kha, and saw in the far
distance the outline of the Islands
of the Blest. One
tradition, so old as
to have been almost
forgotten in Eames-
side times, told how
Thot the ibis there
awaited him, and bore

him away on his wings ; 3 another, no less ancient but
of more lasting popularity, declared that a ferry-boat
plied regularly between the solid earth and the shores

1 Coffins of the XX th and XXI st dynasties, with a yellow ground, often
display this scene. Generally the scene is found beneath the feet of
the dead, at the lower end of the cartonage, and the cow is represented
as carrying off at a gallop the rnummy who is lying on her back.

2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by NAVILLE (Das JEgyplisclie
Todtenbuch, vol. i. pi. iii. P b). The commonest enemies of the dead were
various kinds of serpents.

3 It is often mentioned in the Pyramid texts, and inspired one of the
most obscure chapters among them (Teti, 11. 185-200 ; cf. Recueil de
Travaux, vol. v. pp. 22, 23). It seems that the ibis had to fight with Sit
for right of passage.

THE DECEASED PIERCING A SEKPEXT WITH HIS
LANCE. 2

THE JUDGMENT OF THE OSIRIAN SOUL

207

of paradise. The god who directed it questioned the
dead, and the bark itself proceeded to examine them
before they were admitted on board ; for it was a magic
bark. " Tell me my name," cried the mast; and the
travellers replied: He who guides the great goddess on
her way is thy name." "Tell me my name," repeated
the braces. " The Spine of the Jackal Uapuaitu is thy
name." " Tell me my name," proceeded the mast-head.

THE GOOD COW HATIIOR CARRYING THE DEAD MAN AXD HIS SOUL. 1

"The Neck of Amsit is thy name." "Tell me
name," asked the sail. " Nuifc is thy name." Each part
of the hull and of the rigging spoke in turn and questioned
the applicant regarding its name, this being generally a
mystic phrase by which it was identified either with some
divinity as a whole, or else with some part of his body.

1 Drawn, by Faucher-Gudin, from a coloured facsimile published by
LEEMANS, Monuments figyptiens du Muse e cTAntiquite s des Pays-Bas a Leyden,
part iii. pi. xii.

268

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

When the double had established his right of passage by
the correctness of his answers, the bark consented to
receive him and to carry him to the further shore.

There he was met by the gods and goddesses of the
court of Osiris : by Anubis, by Hathor the lady of the
cemetery, by Nit, by the two Maits who preside over justice

AXUBIS AXD THOT WEIGHING THE HEART OF THE DECEASED IX THE SCALES OF TBUTII.

and truth, and by the four children of Horus stiff-sheathed
in their mummy wrappings. They formed as it were a
guard of honour to introduce him and his winged guide into
an immense hall, the ceiling of which rested on light grace
ful columns of painted wood. At the further end of the

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from pi. cxxxvi. Ag of NAVILLE S Das
ThebaniscJie Todtenluch.

THE JUDGMENT OF THE OSIRIAN SOUL

269

hall Osiris was seated in mysterious twilight within a shrine
through whose open doors he might be seen wearing a red
necklace over his close-fitting case of white bandaging, "his
green face surmounted by the tall white diadem flanked by
two plumes, his slender hands grasping flail and crook, the
emblems of his power. Behind him stood Isis and Neph-

THE DECEASED IS BROUGHT BEFORE THE SHRINE OF OSIRIS THE JUDGE
BY HOKUS, THE SOX OF ISIS.

thys watching over him with uplifted hands, bare bosoms,
and bodies straitly cased in linen. Forty-two jurors who
had died and been festered to life like their lord, and who
had been chosen, one from each of those cities of Egypt
which recognized his authority, squatted right and left, and
motionless, clothed in the wrappings of the dead, silently
waited until they were addressed. The soul first advanced

270 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

to the foot of the throne, carrying on its outstretched hands
the image of its heart or of its eyes, agents and accomplices
of its sins and virtues. It humbly " smelt the earth," then
arose, and with uplifted hands recited its profession of faith.
" Hail unto you, ye lords of Truth ! hail to thee, great god,
lord of Truth and Justice ! I have come before thee, my
master ; I have been brought to see thy beauties. For I
know thee, I know thy name, I know the names of thy
forty-two gods who are with thee in the Hall of the Two
Truths, living on the remains of sinners, gorging themselves
with their blood, in that day when account is rendered
before Onnophris, the true of voice. Thy name which is
thine is the god whose two twins are the ladies of the two
Truths ; and I, I know you, ye lords of the two Truths, I
bring unto you Truth, I have destroyed sins for yon. I
have not committed iniquity against men ! I have not
oppressed the poor ! I have not made defalcations in the
necropolis ! I have not laid labour upon any free man
beyond that which he wrought for himself ! I have not
transgressed, I have not been weak, I have not defaulted, I
have not committed that which is an abomination to the
gods. I have not caused the slave to be ill-treated of his
master ! I have not starved any man, I have not made
any to weep, I have not assassinated any man, I have not
caused any man to be treacherously assassinated, and I
have not committed treason against any ! I have not in
aught diminished the supplies of temples ! I have not
spoiled the shrewbread of the gods ! I have not taken
away the loaves and the wrappings of the dead ! I have
done no carnal act within the sacred enclosure of the

THE NEGATIVE CONFESSION 271

temple ! I have not blasphemed ! I have in nought cur
tailed the sacred revenues ! I have not pulled down the
scale of the balance ! I have not falsified the beam of the
balance ! I have not taken away the milk from the mouths
of sucklings ! I have not lassoed cattle on their pastures !
I have not taken with nets the birds of the gods ! I have
not fished in their ponds ! I have not turned back the
water in its season ! I have not cut off a water-channel in
its course ! I have not put out the fire in its time ! I
have not defrauded the Nine Gods of the choice part of
victims ! I have not ejected the oxen of the gods ! I have
not turned back the god at his coming forth ! I am pure !
I am pure ! I am pure ! I am pure ! Pure as this Great
Bonn of Heracleopolis is pure ! . . . There is no crime
against me in this land of the Double Truth ! Since I
know the names of the gods who are with thee in the Hall
of the Double Truth, save thou me from them ! He then
turned towards the jury and pleaded his cause before them.
They had bee a severally appointed for the cognizance of
particular sins, and the dead man took each of them by
name to witness that he was innocent of the sin which that
one recorded. His plea ended, he returned to the supreme
judge, and repeated, under what is sometimes a highly
mystic form, the ideas which he had already advanced in
the first part of his address. " Hail unto you, ye gods who
are in the Great Hall of the Double Truth, who have no
falsehood in your bosoms, but who live on Truth in Aiinii,
and feed your hearts upon it before the Lord God who
dwelleth in his solar disc ! Deliver me from the Typhon
who feedeth on entrails, Q chiefs J in this hour of supreme

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

judgment ; grant that the deceased may come unto you,
he who hath not sinned, who hath neither lied, nor done
evil, nor committed any crime, who hath not borne false
witness, who hath done nought against himself, but who
liveth on truth, who feedeth on truth. He hath spread joy
on all sides ; men speak of that which he hath done, and
the gods rejoice in it. He hath reconciled the god to him
by his love ; he hath given bread to the hungry, water to
the thirsty, clothing to the naked ; he hath given a boat to
the shipwrecked; he hath offered sacrifices to the gods,
sepulchral meals unto the manes. Deliver him from him
self, speak not against him before the Lord of the Dead, for
his mouth is pure, and his two hands are pure ! " In the
middle of the Hall, however, his acts were being weighed
by the assessors. Like all objects belonging to the gods,
the balance is magic, and the genius which animates it
sometimes shows its fine and delicate little human head on
the top of the upright stand which forms its body. Every
thing about the balance recalls its superhuman origin: a
cynocephalus, emblematic of Thot, sits perched on the up
right and watches the beam ; the cords which suspend the
scales are made of alternate cruces ansatce and tats. Truth
squats upon one of the scales ; Thot, ibis-headed, places
the heart on the other, and always merciful, bears upon the
side of Truth that judgment may be favourably inclined.
He affirms that the heart is light of offence, inscribes the
result of the proceeding upon a wooden tablet, and pro
nounces the verdict aloud. "Thus saith Thot, lord of
divine discourse, scribe of the Great Ennead, to his father
Osiris, lord of eternity, &lt; Behold the deceased in this Hall

THE NEGATIVE CONFESSION 273

of the Double Truth, his heart hath been weighed in the
balance in the presence of the great genii, the lords of
Hades, and been found true. No trace of earthly impurity
hath been found in his heart. Now that he leaveth the
tribunal true of voice, his heart is restored to him, as well
as his eyes and the material cover of his heart, to be put
back in their places each in its own time, his soul in heaven,
his heart in the other world, as is the custom of the
" Followers of Horus." Henceforth let his body lie in the
hands of Anubis, who presideth over the tombs ; let him
receive offerings at the cemetery in the presence of Onno-
phris ; let him be as one of those favourites who follow
thee ; let his soul abide where it will in the necropolis of
his city, he whose voice is true before the Great Ennead. "
In this " Negative Confession," which the worshippers
of Osiris taught to their dead, all is not equally admirable.
The material interests of the temple were too prominent,
and the crime of killing a sacred goose or stealing a loaf
from the bread offerings was considered as abominable as
calumny or murder. But although it contains traces of
priestly cupidity, yet how many of its precepts are untar
nished in their purity by any selfish ulterior motive ! In it
is all our morality in germ, and with refinements of delicacy
often lacking among peoples of later and more advanced
civilizations. The god does not confine his favour to the
prosperous and the powerful of this world ; he bestows it
also upon the poor. His will is that they be fed and
clothed, and exempted from tasks beyond their strength ;
that they be not oppressed, and that unnecessary tears be
Spared them, If this does not amount to the love of our

VOL. I. T

274 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

neighbour as our religions preach it, at least it represents
the careful solicitude due from a good lord to his vassals.
His pity extends to slaves ; not only does he command that
no one should ill-treat them himself, but he forbids that
their masters should be led to ill-treat them. This pro
fession of faith, one of the noblest bequeathed us by the old
world, is of very ancient origin. It may be read in scattered
fragments upon the monuments of the first dynasties, and
the way in which its ideas are treated by the compilers of
these inscriptions proves that it was not then regarded as
new, but as a text so old and so well known that its
formulas were current in all mouths, and had their pre
scribed places in epitaphs. 1 Was it composed in Mendes,
the god s own home, or in Heliopolis, when the theologians
of that city appropriated the god of Mendes and incorporated
him in their Ennead ? In conception it certainly belongs
to the Osirian priesthood, but it can only have been diffused
over the whole of Egypt after the general adoption of the
Heliopolitan Ennead throughout the cities.

As soon as he was judged, the dead man entered into
the possession of his rights as a pure soul. On high he
received from the Universal Lord all that kings and princes
here below bestowed upon their followers rations of food, 2

1 For instance, one of the formulas found in Memphite tombs states that
the deceased had been the friend of his father, the beloved of his mother,
sweet to those who lived with him, gracious to his brethren, loved of his
servants, and that he had never sought wrongful quarrel with any man ;
briefly, that he spoke and did that which is right here below.

2 The formula of the pyramid times is : " Thy thousand of oxen, thy
thousand of geese, of roast and boiled joints from the larder of the gods, of
bread, and plenty of the good things presented in the hall of Osiris."

THE PRIVILEGES OF OSIRIAN SOULS

273

and a house, gardens, and fields to be held subject to the
usual conditions of tenure in Egypt, i.e. taxation, military
service, and the corvee. If the island was attacked by the
partisans of Sit, the Osirian doubles hastened in a body to
repulse them, and fought bravely in its defence. Of the
revenues sent to him by his kindred on certain days and
by means of sacrifices, each gave tithes to the heavenly
storehouses. Yet this was but the least part of the
burdens laid upon him by the laws of the country, which

THE MAXES TILLING THE GROUND AND REAPING IX THE FIELDS OF lALl). 1

did not suffer him to become enervated by idleness, but
obliged him to labour as in the days when he still dwelt
in Egypt. He looked after the maintenance of canals and
dykes, he tilled the ground, he sowed, he reaped, he
garnered the grain for his lord and for himself. Yet to
those upon whom they were incumbent, these posthumous
obligations, the sequel and continuation of feudal service,
at length seemed too heavy, and theologians exercised
their ingenuity to find means of lightening the burden.
They authorized the manes to look to their servants for the

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a vignette in the funerary papyrus of
Nebhopit in Turin.

276

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

discharge of all manual labour which they ought to have
performed themselves. Karely did a dead man, no matter
how poor, arrive unaccompanied at the eternal cities ; he
brought with him a following proportionate to his rank and
fortune upon earth. At first they were real doubles, those

of slaves or vassals killed at the tomb, and
who had departed along with the double of
the master to serve him beyond the grave
as they had served him here. A number
of statues and images, magically endued
with activity and intelligence, was after
wards substituted for this retinue of victims.
Originally of so large a size that only the
rich or noble could afford them, they were
reduced little by little to the height of a
few inches. Some were carved out of
alabaster, granite, diorite, fine limestone,
or moulded out of fine clay and delicately
modelled ; others had scarcely any human
resemblance. They were endowed with life
by means of a formula recited over them
at the time of their manufacture, and afterwards traced
upon their legs. All were possessed of the same faculties.
When the god who called the Osirians to the corvee pro
nounced the name of the dead man to whom the figures
belonged, they arose and answered for him; hence their
designation of " Respondents "tiaslMti. Equipped for
agricultural labour, each grasping a hoe and carrying a

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a painted limestone statuette from the
tomb of Svnnozmu at Thebes, dating from the end of the XX th dynasty.

UASHBITI. 1

FACULTIES OF THE GODS

277

seed-bag on his shoulder, they set out to work in their
appointed places, contributing the required number of days
of forced labour. Up to a certain point they thus compen
sated for those inequalities of condition which death itself
did not efface among the vassals of Osiris ; for the figures
were sold so cheaply that even the poorest could always

THE DEAD MAN AND HIS WIFE PLAYING AT DRAUGHTS IN THE PAVILION. 1

afford some for themselves, or bestow a few upon their
relations ; and in the Islands of the Blest, fellah, artisan,
and slave were indebted to the Uashliti for release from
their old routine of labour and unending toil. While the

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a vignette in No. 4 Papyrus, Dublin
(NAVILLE, Das JEgyptische Tudtenluch, vol. i. pi. xxvii. Da). The name of
draughts is not altogether accurate ; a description of the game may be found
in FALKNER, Games Ancient and Oriental and Juno to play them, pp. 9-101.

278

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

little peasants of stone or glazed ware dutifully toiled and
tilled and sowed, their masters were enjoyiug all the
delights of the Egyptian paradise in perfect idleness.
They sat at ease hy the water-side, inhaling the fresh
north breeze, under the shadow of trees which were always
green. They fished with lines among the lotus-plants;
they embarked in their boats, and were towed along by
their servants, or they would sometimes deign to paddle
themselves slowly about the canals. They went fowling

THE DEAD MAN SAILING IX HIS BAKK ALONG THE CANALS OF THE FIELDS OF IALU. 1

among the reed-beds, or retired within their painted
pavilions to read tales, to play at draughts, to return to
their wives who were for ever young and beautiful. 2 It
was but an ameliorated earthly life, divested of all suffering

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the Papyrus of Nebhopit, in Turin.
This drawing is from part of the same scene as the illustration on p. 275.

2 Gymnastic exercises, hunting, fishing, sailing, are all pictured in
Theban tombs. The game of draughts is mentioned in the title of chap. xvii.
of the Book of the Dead (NAVILLE S edition, vol. i. pi. xxiii. 1. 2), and the
women s pavilion is represented in the tomb of Rakhmiri. That the dead
were supposed to read tales is proved from the fact that broken ostraca
bearing long fragments of literary works are found in tombs ; they were
broken to kill them and to send on their doubles to the dead man in the
next world.

CONFUSION OF OSIRIAN AND SOLAR IDEAS 279

under the rule and by the favour of the true-voiced
Onnophris.

The feudal gods promptly adopted this new mode of life.
Each of their dead bodies, mummified, and afterwards
reanimated in accordance with the Osirian myth, became

3fflte$3

BOAT OF A FUXEKAKY FLEET OX ITS WAY TO ABYDOS. 1

in Osiris as did that of any ordinary person. Some carried
the assimilation so far as to absorb the god of Mendes, or

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.
The original was found in the course of M. de Morgan s excavations at Meir,
and is now at Gizeh. The dead man is sitting in the cabin, wrapped in his
cloak. As far as I know, this is the only boat which has preserved its
original rigging. It dates from the XI th or XII th dynasty.

280

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

to be absorbed in him. At Memphis Phtah-Sokaris became
Phtah-Sokar-Osiris, and at Thinis Khontamentit became
Osiris Khontamentifc. The sun-god lent himself to this
process with comparative ease because his life is more like
a man s life, and hence also more like that of Osiris, which
is the counterpart of a man s life. Born in the morning,

he ages as the day de
clines, and gently passes
away at eveniog. From
the time of his entering
the sky to that of his
leaving it, he reigns
above as he reigned here
below in the beginning ;
but when he has left
the sky and sinks into
Hades, he becomes as one of the dead, and is, as they
are, subjected to Osirian embalmment. The same dangers
that menace their human souls threaten his soul also ; and
when he has vanquished them, not in his own strength, but
by the power of amulets and magical formulas, he enters
into the fields of lalu, and ought to dwell there for ever
under the rule of Onnophris. He did nothing of the kind,
however, for daily the sun was to be seen reappearing in
the east twelve hours after it had sunk into the darkness
of the west. Was it a new orb each time, or did the same
sun shine every day? In either case the result was pre
cisely the same; the god came forth from death and

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a vignette in the Papyrus of Nebqadu,
in Paris,

THE SOLAR BARK INTO WHICH THE DEAD MAX
IS ABOUT TO ENTER. 1

THE DEAD IN THE BARK OP THE SUN 281

re-entered into life. Having identified the course of the
sun-god with that of man, and Ra with Osiris for a first day
and a first night, it was hard not to push the matter
further, and identify them for all succeeding days and
nights, affirming that man and Osiris might, if they so
wished, be born again in the morning, as Ra was, and
together with him. If the Egyptians had found the
prospect of quitting the darkness of the tomb for the
bright meadows of lalii a sensible alleviation of their lot,
with what joy must they have been filled by the concep
tion which allowed them to substitute the whole realm of
the sun for a little archipelago in an out-of-the-way corner
of the universe. Their first consideration was to obtain
entrance into the divine bark, and this was the object of
all the various practices and prayers, whose text, together
with that which already contained the Osirian formulas,
ensured the unfailing protection of Ra to their possessor.
The soul desirous of making use of them went straight
from his tomb to the very spot where the god left earth
to descend into Hades. This was somewhere in the
immediate neighbourhood of Abydos, and was reached
through a narrow gorge or "cleft in the Libyan range,
whose "mouth opened in front of the temple of Osiris
Khontamentit, a little to the north-west of the city. The
soul was supposed to be carried thither by a small flotilla
of boats, manned by figures representing friends or priests,
and laden with food, furniture, and statues. This flotilla
was placed within the vault on the day of the funeral, and
was set in motion by means of incantations recited over
it during one of the first nights of the year, at the annual

282

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

feast of the dead. The bird or insect which had previously
served as guide to the soul upon its journey now took the
helm to show the fleet the right way, and under this
command the boats left Abydos and mysteriously passed
through the "cleft" into that western sea which is
inaccessible to the living, there to await the daily coming
of the dying sun-god. As soon as his bark appeared at

THE SOLAK BARK PASSING INTO TIIR MOUNTAIN OF THE AVEST. 1

the last bend of the celestial Nile, the cynocephali, who
guarded the entrance into night, began to dance and
gesticulate upon the banks as they intoned their accus
tomed hymn. The gods of Abydos mingled their shouts
of joy with the chant of the sacred baboons, the bark
lingered for a moment upon the frontiers of day, and

Drawn by Paucher-Gudin, from a very small photograph published in
the Catalogue of the Minutoli Sale,

THE GOING FORTH OF SOULS BY DAY 283

initiated souls seized the occasion to secure their recogni
tion and their reception on board of it. 1 Once admitted,
they took their share in the management of the boat, and
in the battles with hostile deities ; but they were not all
endowed with the courage or equipment needful to with
stand the perils and terrors of the voyage. Many stopped
short by the way in one of the regions which it traversed,
either in the realm of Khontamentlt, or in that of Sokaris,
or in those islands where the good Osiris welcomed them
as though they had duly arrived in the ferry-boat, or upon
the wing of Thot. There they dwelt in colonies under the
suzerainty of local gods, rich, and in need of nothing, but
condemned to live in darkness, excepting for the one brief
hour in which the solar bark passed through their midst,
irradiating them with beams of light. 2 The few persevered,
feeling that they had courage to accompany the sun
throughout, and these were indemnified for their sufferings
by the most brilliant fate ever dreamed of by Egyptian
souls. Born anew with the sun-god and appearing with
him at the gates of the east, they were assimilated to him,
and shared his privilege of growing old and dying, only to
be ceaselessly rejuvenated and to live again with ever-
renewed splendour. They disembarked where they

This description of the embarkation and voyage of the soul is composed
from indications given in one of the vignettes of chap. xvi. of the Book of the
Dead (NAVILLE S edition, vol. i. pi. xxii.), combined with the text of a
formula which became common from the times of the XI th and XII th
dynasties (MASPERO, Etudes de Mytholorjie et d Arche ologie tfgyptienncs, vol. i.
pp. 14-18, and Etudes figyptiennes, vol. i. pp. 122, 123).

2 MASPERO, Etudes de Nylltolorjie et d Arch ologie Jigyptiennes, vol. ii. pp,
44, 45.

284

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OP EGYPT

pleased, and returned at will into the world. If now and
then they felt a wish to revisit all that was left of their
earthly bodies, the human-headed sparrow-
hawk descended the shaft in full flight, alighted
upon the funeral couch, and, with hands softly
laid upon the spot where the heart had been
wont to beat, gazed upwards at the impassive
mask of the mummy. This was but for a
moment, since nothing compelled these perfect
souls to be imprisoned within the tomb like
the doubles of earlier times, because they
feared the light. They " went forth by day,"
and dwelt in those places where they had
lived ; they walked in their gardens by their
ponds of running water; they perched like
so many birds on the branches of the trees
which they had planted, or enjoyed the fresh

air under the
shade of their
sycamores ; they
ate and drank at
pleasure ; they
travelled by hill
and dale ; they
embarked in the
boat of Ra, and
disembarked
without weari
ness, and without distaste for the same perpetual round.
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from DEVEKIA.

THE SOUL DESCENDING THE SEPULCHRAL SHAFT ON ITS
WAY TO REJOIN THE MUMMY. 1

THE SOUL BACK UPON EARTH

285

This conception, which was developed somewhat late,
brought the Egyptians hack to the point from which they
had started when first they hegan to speculate on the
life to come. The soul, after having left the place of its
incarnation to which in the beginning it clung, after
having ascended into heaven and there sought congenial
asylum in vain, forsook all havens which it had found

THE SOCL ON THE EDGE OF THE FUNERAL COUCH, WITH ITS HANDS ON THE

HEART OF THE MUMMY. 1

above, and unhesitatingly fell back upon earth, there to
lead a peaceful, free, and happy life in the full light of
clay, and with the whole valley of Egypt for a paradise.

The connection, always increasingly intimate between
Osiris and Ra, gradually brought about a blending of the
previously separate myths and beliefs concerning each.

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey,
reproducing the miniature sarcophagus of the scribe Ra (MA8PEBO, Guide dtt
Vmleur, pp. 130, 131, No. 1621).

286 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

The friends and enemies of the one became the friends
and enemies of the other, and from a mixture of the
original conceptions of the two deities, arose new per
sonalities, in which contradictory elements were blent
together, often without true fusion. The celestial Horuses
one by one were identified with Horus, son of Isis, and
their attributes were given to him, as his in the same way
became theirs. Apopi and the monsters the hippo
potamus, the crocodile, the wild boar who lay in wait
for Ea as he sailed the heavenly ocean, became one with
Sit and his accomplices. Sit still possessed his half of
Egypt, and his primitive brotherly relation to the celestial
Horus remained unbroken, either on account of their
sharing one temple, as at Nubit, or because they were
worshipped as one in two neighbouring nomes, as, for
example, at Oxyrrhynchos and at Heracleopolis Magna.
The repulsion with which the slayer of Osiris was re
garded did not everywhere dissociate these two cults:
certain small districts persisted in this double worship
down to the latest times of paganism. It was, after all,
a mark of fidelity to the oldest traditions of the race,
but the balk of the Egyptians, who had forgotten these,
invented reasons taken from the history of the divine
dynasties to explain the fact. The judgment of Thot or
of Sibil had not put an end to the machinations of Sit:
as soon as Horus had left the earth, Sit resumed them,
and pursued them, with varying fortune, under the divine
kings of the second Ennead. Now, in the year 363 of
Harrnakhis, the Typhouians reopened the campaign.
Beaten at first near Edfu, they retreated precipitately

CAMPAIGNS OF HARMAKHIS AGAINST SIT

287

northwards, stopping to give battle wherever their
partisans predominated, at Zatmifc in the Theban nome, 1
at Khaitnutrit to the north-east of Denderah, and at
Hibonu in the principality of the Gazelle. Several bloody
combats, which took place between Oxyrrhynchos and

K^aa^^A

^f^fi^mm

&gt;?/ ^Y/ ^V. *fftf& =*f^ff,-

THE SOUL GOING FOHTII INTO ITS GARDEN BY DAY. 2

Heracleopolis Magna, were the means of driving them
finally out of the Nile Valley ; they rallied for the last

1 Zatmit appears to have been, situate at some distance from Bayadiyeh,
on the spot where the map published by the Egyptian Commission marks the
ruins of a modern village. There was a necropolis of considerable extent
there, which furnishes the Luxor dealers with antiquities, many of which
belong to the first Theban empire.

2 Copied by Faucher-Gudin from the survey-drawings of the tomb of
Anni by Boussac, member of the Mission fran^aise in Egypt (1891). The
inscription over the arbour gives the list of the various trees in the garden
of Anni during his lifetime.

288 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

time in the eastern provinces of the Delta, were beaten
at Zalii, and giving up all hope of success on land, they
embarked at the head of the Gulf of Suez, in order to
return to the Nubian Desert, their habitual refuge in
times of distress. The sea was the special element of
Typhon, and upon it they believed themselves secure.
Horus, however, followed them, overtook them near Shas-
hirit, routed them, and on his return to Edfu, celebrated
his victory by a solemn festival. By degrees, as he made
himself master of those localities which owed allegiance
to Sifc, he took energetic measures to establish in them
the authority of Osiris and of the solar cycle. In all of
them he built, side by side with the sanctuary of the
Typhonian divinities, a temple to himself, in which he
was enthroned under the particular form he was obliged
to assume in order to vanquish his enemies. Meta
morphosed into a hawk at the battle of Hibonu, we next
see him springing on to the back of Sit under the guise
of a hippopotamus ; in his shrine at Hibonu he is re
presented as a hawk perching on the back of a gazelle,
emblem of the nome where the struggle took place.
Near to Zalu he became incarnate as a human-headed
lion, crowned with the triple diadem, and having feet
armed with claws which cut like a knife ; it was under the
form, too, of a lion that he was worshipped in the temple
at Zalu. The correlation of Sit and the celestial Horus
was not, therefore, for these Egyptians of more recent
times a primitive religious fact ; it was the consequence,
and so to speak the sanction, of the old hostility between
the two gods. Horus had treated his enemy in the same

&lt;rH

flj

VOL. i.

HATRED OF THE FOLLOWERS OF OSIRIS 291

fashion that a victorious Pharaoh treated the barbarians
conquered by his arms : he had constructed a fortress to
keep his foe in check, and his priests formed a sort of
garrison as a precaution against the revolt of the rival
priesthood and the followers of the rival deity. In this
manner the battles of the gods were changed into human
struggles, in which, more than once, Egypt was deluged
with blood. The hatred of the followers of Osiris to those
of Typhon was perpetuated with such implacability, that
the nomes which had persisted in adhering to the worship
of Sit, became odious to the rest of the population : the
image of their master on the monuments was mutilated,
their names were effaced from the geographical lists, they
were assailed with insulting epithets, and to pursue and
slay their sacred animals was reckoned a pious act. Thus
originated those skirmishes which developed into actual
civil wars, and were continued down to Roman times.
The adherents of Typhon only became more confirmed in
their veneration for the accursed god ; Christianity alone
overcame their obstinate fidelity to him. 1

The history of the world for Egypt was therefore only
the history of the struggle between the adherents of
Osiris and the followers of Sit ; an interminable warfare

1 This incident in the wars of Horus and Sit is drawn by Faucher-Gudin
from a bas-relief of the temple of Edfu. On the right, Har-Huditi, standing
up in the solar bark, pierces with his lance the head of a crocodile, a partisan
of Sit, lying in the water below; Harmakhis, standing behind him, is present at
the execution. Facing this divine pair, is the young Horus, who kills a man,
another partisan of Sit, while Isis and Har-Huditi hold his chains ; behind
Horus, Isis and Thot are leading four other captives bound and ready to be
sacrificed before Harmakhis.

292 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

in which sometimes one and sometimes the other of the
rival parties obtained a passing advantage, without ever
gaining a decisive victory till the end of time. The
divine kings of the second and third Ennead devoted
most of the years of their earthly reign to this end ; they
were portrayed under the form of the great warrior
Pharaohs, who, from the eighteenth to the twelfth century
before our era, extended their rule from the plains of
the Euphrates to the marshes of Ethiopia. A few
peaceful sovereigns are met with here and there in this
line of conquerors a few sages or legislators, of whom
the most famous was styled Thot, the doubly great, ruler
of Hermopolis and of the Hermopolitan Ennead. A
legend of recent origin made him the prime minister of
Horns, son of Isis; a still more ancient tradition would
identify him with the second king of the second dynasty,
the immediate successor of the divine Horuses, and
attributes to him a reign of 3226 years. He brought
to the throne that inventive spirit and that creative power
which had characterized him from the time when he was
only a feudal deity. Astronomy, divination, magic, medi
cine, writing, drawing in fine, all the arts and sciences
emanated from him as from their first source. He had
taught mankind the methodical observation of the heavens
and of the changes that took place in them, the slow
revolutions of the sun, the rapid phases of the moon,
the intersecting movements of the five planets, and the
shapes and limits of the constellations which each night
were lit up in the sky. Most of the latter either remained,
or appeared to remain immovable, and seemed never to

ASTRONOMY, THE STELLAR TABLES

293

pass out of the regions accessible to the human eye.
Those which were situate on the extreme margin of the
firmament accomphshed movements there analogous to
those of the planets. Every year at fixed times they

were seen to sink
one after another
below the horizon,
to disappear, and
rising again after
an eclipse of

D12T

\m&lt;

OKC

i on

M "-jkO
, . .j in ocf;

& "

.off

greater or less du
ration, to regain
insensibly their
original positions.
The constellations
were reckoned to

be thirty- six in number, the thirty-
six decani to whom were attributed
mysterious powers, and of whom
Sothis was queen- - Sothis trans
formed into the star of Isis, when
Orion (Sahu, became the star of
Osiris. The nights are so clear and

o OF THE ASTRONOMICAL tllG atmos P^0 so transparent in

TAIU.ES OF THE TOMB OF Egypt, that the GjQ co.li readily

RAMSES IV. 1 ,i

penetrate the depths of space, and

distinctly see points of light which would be invisible in
our foggy climate. The Egyptians did not therefore
need special instruments to ascertain the existence of a

Drawn by Fauch^r-Gudin, from a copy by LEPSHJS, Denkm., iii. 227, 3.

294 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

considerable number of stars which we could not see with
out the help of our telescopes ; they could perceive with
the naked eye stars of the fifth magnitude, and note them
upon their catalogues. 1 It entailed, it is true, a long
training and uninterrupted practice to bring their sight
up to its maximum keenness ; but from very early times it
was a function of the priestly colleges to found and
maintain schools of astronomy. The first observatories
established on the banks of the Nile seem to have
belonged to the temples of the sun; the high priests of
Ra who, to judge from their title, were alone worthy to
behold the sun face to face were actively employed from
the earliest times in studying the configuration and pre
paring maps of the heavens. The priests of other gods
were quick to follow their example: at the opening of
the historic period, there was not a single temple, from
one end of the valley to the other, that did not possess
its official astronomers, or, as they were called, "watchers
of the night." 2 In the evening they went up on to the
high terraces above the shrine, or on to the narrow
platforms which terminated the pylons, and fixing their

1 Biot, however, states that stars of the third and fourth magnitude
" are the smallest which can be seen with the naked eye." I believe I am
right in affirming that several of the fellahin and Bedawin attached to the
" service cles Antiquites " can see stars which are usually classed with those
of the fifth magnitude.

2 Urslm : this word is also used for the soldiers on watch during the day
upon the walls of a fortress. Birch believed he had discovered in the British
Museum a catalogue of observations made at Thebes by several astronomers
upon a constellation which answered to the Hyades or the Pleiades ; it was
merely a question in this text of the quantity of water supplied regularly to
the astronomers of a Theban temple for their domestic purposes.

"WATCHERS OF THE NIGHT" 295

eyes continuously on the celestial vault above them,
followed the movements of the constellations and care
fully noted down the slightest phenomena which they
observed. A portion of the chart of the heavens, as
known to Theban Egypt between the eighteenth and
twelfth centuries before our era, has survived to the
present time ; parts of it were carved by the decorators
on the ceilings of temples, and especially on royal tombs.
The deceased Pharaohs were identified with Osiris in a
more intimate fashion than their subjects. They repre
sented the god even in the most trivial details ; on earth
-where, after having played the part of the beneficent
Onnophris of primitive ages, they underwent the most
complete and elaborate embalming, like Osiris of the
lower world ; in Hades where they embarked side by
side with the Sun-Osiris to cross the night and to be
born again at daybreak ; in heaven where they shone
with Orion- Sahu under the guardianship of Sothis, and,
year by year, led the procession of the stars. The maps
of the firmament recalled to them, or if necessary taught
them, this part of their duties : they there saw the planets
and the decani sail past in their boats, and the constella
tions follow one another in continuous succession. The
lists annexed to the charts indicated the positions occupied
each month by the principal heavenly bodies their risings,
their culminations, and their settings. Unfortunately,
the workmen employed to execute these pictures either
did not understand much about the subject in hand, or
did not trouble themselves to copy the originals exactly:
they omitted many passages, transposed others, and made

296 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

endless mistakes, which made it impossible for us to
transfer accurately to a modern map the information
possessed by the ancients.

In directing their eyes to the celestial sphere, Thot had
at the same time revealed to men the art of measuring time,
and the knowledge of the future. As he was the moon-god
par excellence, he watched with jealous care over the divine
eye which had been entrusted to him by Horus, and the
thirty days during which he was engaged in conducting it
through all the phases of its nocturnal life, were reckoned
as a month. Twelve of these months formed the year, a
year of three hundred and sixty days, during which the
earth witnessed the gradual beginning and ending of the
circle of the seasons. The Nile rose, spread over the fields,
sank again into its channel; to the vicissitudes of the
inundation succeeded the work of cultivation ; the harvest
followed the seedtime : these formed three distinct divisions
of the year, each of nearly equal duration. Thot made of
them the three seasons, that of the waters, Shait ; that
of vegetation, Piruit ; that of the harvest, Shomu each
comprising four months, numbered one to four ; the 1st,
2nd, 3rd, and 4th months of Shait ; the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and
4th months of Piruit ; the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th months
of Shomu. The twelve months completed, a new year
began, whose birth was heralded by the rising of Sothis in
the early days of August. The first month of the Egyptian
year thus coincided with the eighth of ours. Thot became
its patron, and gave it his name, relegating each of the
others to a special protecting divinity ; in this manner the
third month of Shait fell to Hathor, and was called after

THE YEAR AND ITS SUBDIVISIONS 297

her; the fourth of Pirtiit belonged to Ranuifc or Ramuit,
the lady of harvests, and derived from her its appellation
of Pharmuti. Official documents always designated the
months by the ordinal number attached to them in each
season, but the people gave them by preference the names
of their tutelary deities, and these names, transcribed into
Greek, and then into Arabic, are still used by the Christian
inhabitants of Egypt, side by side with the Mussulman
appellations. One patron for each month was, however,
not deemed sufficient : each month was subdivided into
three decades, over which presided as many decani, and
the days themselves were assigned to genii appointed to
protect them. A number of festivals were set apart at
irregular intervals during the course of the year : festivals
for the new year, festivals for the beginning of the seasons,
months and decades, festivals for the dead, for the supreme
gods, and for local divinities. Every act of civil life was
so closely allied to the religious life, that it could not be
performed without a sacrifice or a festival. A festival
celebrated the cutting of the dykes, another the opening
of the canals, a third the reaping of the first sheaf, or the
carrying of the grain ; a crop gathered or stored without
a festival to implore the blessing of the gods, would have
been an act of sacrilege and fraught with disaster. The first
year of three hundred and sixty days, regulated by the
revolutions of the rnoon, did not long meet the needs of
the Egyptian people ; it did not correspond with the length
of the solar year, for it fell short of it by five and a quarter
days, and this deficit, accumulating from twelvemonth to
twelvemonth, caused such a serious difference between the

298 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

calendar reckoning and the natural seasons, that it soon
had to be corrected. They intercalated, therefore, after
the twelfth month of each year and before the first day of
the ensuing year, five epagomenal days, which they termed
the "five days over and above the year." 1 The legend of
Osiris relates that Thot created them in order to permit
Ntiit to give birth to all her children. These days consti
tuted, at the end of the "great year," a "little month,"
which considerably lessened the difference between the
solar and lunar computation, but did not entirely do away
with it, and the six hours and a few minutes of which the
Egyptians had not taken count gradually became the source
of fresh perplexities. They at length amounted to a whole
day, which needed to be added every four years to the
regular three hundred and sixty days, a fact which was
unfortunately overlooked. The difficulty, at first only
slight, which this caused in public life, increased with
time, and ended by disturbing the harmony between the
order of the calendar and that of natural phenomena :
at the end of a hundred and twenty years, the legal year
had gained a whole month on the actual year, and the 1st
of Thot anticipated the heliacal rising of Sothis by thirty

There appears to be a tendency among Egyptologists now to doubt the
existence, under the Ancient Empire, of the five epagomenal clays, and as a
fact they are nowhere to be found expressly mentioned ; but we know that
the five gods of the Osirian cycle were born during the epagomenal day (cf.
p. 247 of this History), and the allusions to the Osirian legend which are
met with in the Pyramid texts, prove that the days were added long before
the time when those inscriptions were cut. As the wording of the texts
often comes clown from prehistoric times, it is most likely that the invention
of the epagomenal days is anterior to the first Thinite and Memphite
dynasties.

THE DEFECTS OF THE YEAR 299

days, instead of coinciding with it as it ought. The
astronomers of the GrsDco-Koman period, after a retro
spective examination of all the past history of their
country, discovered a very ingenious theory for obviating
this unfortunate discrepancy. If the omission of six hours
annually entailed the loss of one day every four years, the
time would come, after three hundred and sixty-five times
four years, when the deficit would amount to an entire
year, and when, in consequence, fourteen hundred and
sixty whole years would exactly equal fourteen hundred
and sixty-one incomplete years. The agreement of the
two years, which had been disturbed by the force of
circumstances, was re-established of itself after rather
more than fourteen and a half centuries : the opening of
the civil year became identical with the beginning of the
astronomical year, and this again coincided with the
heliacal rising of Sirius, and therefore with the official
date of the inundation. To the Egyptians of Pharaonic
times, this simple and eminently practical method was
unknown : by means of it hundreds of generations, who
suffered endless troubles from the recurring difference
between an uncertain and a fixed year, might have
consoled themselves with the satisfaction of knowing that
a day would come when one of their descendants would,
for once in his life, see both years coincide w r ith mathe
matical accuracy, and the seasons appear at their normal
times. The Egyptian year might be compared to a watch
which loses a definite number of minutes daily. The owner
does not take the trouble to calculate a cycle in which the
total of minutes lost will bring the watch round to the

300 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OP EGYPT

correct time : he bears with the irregularity as long as his
affairs do not suffer by it; but when it causes him in
convenience, he alters the hands to the right hour, and
repeats this operation each time he finds it necessary,
without being guided by a fixed rule. In like manner the
Egyptian year fell into hopeless confusion with regard to
the seasons, the discrepancy continually increasing, until
the difference became so great, that the king or the priests
had to adjust the two by a process similar to that employed
in the case of the watch.

The days, moreover, had each their special virtues,
which it was necessary for man to know if he wished to
profit by the advantages, or to escape the perils which
they possessed for him. There was not one among them
that did not recall some incident of the divine wars, and
had not witnessed a battle between the partisans of Sit
and those of Osiris or Ka; the victories or the disasters
which they had chronicled had as it were stamped them
with good or bad luck, and for that reason they remained
for ever auspicious or the reverse. It was on the 17th of
Athyr that Typhon had enticed his brother to come to him,
and had murdered him in the middle of a banquet. Every
year, on this day, the tragedy that had taken place in the
earthly abode of the god seemed to be repeated afresh in
the heights of heaven. Just as at the moment of the death
of Osiris, the powers of good were at their weakest, and
the sovereignty of evil everywhere prevailed, so the whole
of Nature, abandoned to the powers of darkness, became
inimical to man. Whatever he undertook on that day
issued in failure. If he went out to walk by the river- side,

AUSPICIOUS AND INAUSPICIOUS DAYS 301

a crocodile would attack him, as the crocodile sent by Sit
had attacked Osiris. If he set out on a journey, it was
a last farewell which he bade to his family and friends :
death would meet him by the way. To escape this fatality,
he must shut himself up at home, and wait in inaction until
the hours of danger had passed and the sun of the ensuing
day had put the evil one to flight. 1 It was to his interest
to know these adverse influences ; and who would have
known them all, had not Thot pointed them out and
marked them in his calendars ? One of these, long
fragments of which have come down to us, indicated briefly
the character of each day, the gods who presided over it,
the perils which accompanied their patronage, or the good
fortune which might be expected of them. The details of
it are not always intelligible to us, as we are still ignorant
of many of the episodes in the life of Osiris. The Egyptians
were acquainted with the matter from childhood, and were
guided with sufficient exactitude by these indications. The
hours of the night were all inauspicious ; those of the day
were divided into three "seasons of four hours each, of
which some were lucky, while others were invariably of ill
omen. " THE 4TH OP TYBI : good, good, good. Whatsoever

thou seest on this day will be fortunate. Whosoever is

1 On the 20th of Thot no work was to be done, no oxen killed, no
stranger i*eceived. On the 22nd no fish might be eaten, no oil lamp was to
be lighted. On the 23rd " put no incense on the fire, nor kill big cattle, nor
goats, nor ducks ; eat of no goose, nor of that which has lived." On the
26th "do absolutely nothing on this day," and the same advice is found on
the 7th of Paophi, on the 18th, on the 26th, on the 27th, and more than thirty
times in the remainder of the Sallier Calendar. On the 30th of Mechir it is
forbidden to speak aloud to any one.

302 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

born on this day, will die more advanced in years than any
of his family ; he will attain to a greater age than his
father. THE TH OF TYBI : inimical, inimical, inimical. This
is the day on which the goddess Sokhit, mistress of the
double white Palace, burnt the chiefs when they raised
an insurrection, came forth, and manifested themselves.
Offerings of bread to Shu, Phtah, Thot : burn incense to
Ra, and to the gods who are his followers, to Phtah, Thot,
Hu-Su, on this day. Whatsoever thou seest on this day
will be fortunate. THE GTH OF TYBI : good, good, good.
Whatsoever thou seest on this day will be fortunate. THE
TTH OP TYBI : inimical, inimical, inimical. Do not join
thyself to a woman in the presence of the Eye of Horus.
Beware of letting the fire go out which is in thy house.
THE STH OF TYBI : good, good, good. Whatsoever thou seest
with thine eye this day, the Ennead of the gods will grant
to thee : the sick will recover. THE OTH OF TYBI : good,
good, good. The gods cry out for joy at noon this day.
Bring offerings of festal cakes and of fresh bread, which
rejoice the heart of the gods and of the manes. THE K)TH
OF TYBI : inimical, inimical, inimical. Do not set fire to
weeds on this day : it is the day on which the god Sap-hoii
set fire to the land of Buto. THE HTH OF TYBI: inimical,
inimical, inimical. Do not draw nigh to any flame on this
day, for Ka entered the flames to strike all his enemies,
and whosoever draws nigh to them on this day, it shall not
be well with him during his whole life. THE 12TH OF
TYBI : inimical, inimical, inimical. See that thou beholdest
not a rat on this day, nor approachest any rat within th) r
house : it is the day wherein Sokhit gave forth the

MAGICAL ARTS 303

decrees." In these cases a little watchfulness or exercise
of memory sufficed to put a man on his guard against evil
omens ; but in many circumstances all the vigilance in the
world would not protect him, and the fatality of the day
would overtake him, without his being able to do ought to
avert it. No man can at will place the day of his birth at a
favourable time ; he must accept it as it occurs, and yet it
exercises a decisive influence on the manner of his death.
According as he enters the world on the 4th, 5th, or 6th
of Paophi, he either dies of marsh fever, of love, or of
drunkenness. The child of the 23rd perishes by the jaws
of a crocodile : that of the 27th is bitten and dies by a
serpent. On the other hand, the fortunate man whose
birthday falls on the 9th or the 29th lives to an extreme
old age, and passes away peacefully, respected by all.

Thot, having pointed out the evil to men, gave to
them at the same time the remedy. The magical arts
of which he was the repository, made him virtual master
of the other gods. He knew their mystic names, their
secret weaknesses, the kind of peril they most feared,
the ceremonies which subdued them to his will, the
prayers which they could not refuse to grant under
pain of misfortune or death. His wisdom, transmitted
to his worshippers, assured to them the same authority
which he exercised upon those in heaven, on earth, or
in the nether world. The magicians instructed in his
school had, like the god, control of the words and
sounds which, emitted at the favourable moment with
the " correct voice," would evoke the most formidable
deities from beyond the confines of the universe : they

304 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

could bind and loose at will Osiris, Sit, Anubis, even
Thot himself; they could send them forth, and recall
them, or constrain them to work and fight for them.
The extent of their power exposed the magicians to
terrible temptations ; they were often led to use it to
the detriment of others, to satisfy their spite, or
to gratify their grosser appetites. Many, moreover, made
a gain of their knowledge, putting it at the service of
the ignorant who would pay for it. When they were
asked to plague or get rid of an enemy, they had a
hundred different ways of suddenly surrounding him

K\Y-|-/-\n tfe

J^Mvf WWn & *%

^OS=9ffi_^_M L : LLJ -Hfe-*i.

THE GODS FIGHTING FOR THE MAGICIAN WHO HAS INVOKED THEM. 1

without his suspecting it : they tormented him with
deceptive or terrifying dreams; they harassed him with
apparitions and mysterious voices; they gave him as a
prey to sicknesses, to w r anderiug spectres, who entered
into him and slowly consumed him. They constrained,
even at a distance, the wills of men ; they caused
women to be the victims of infatuations, to forsake
those they had loved, and to love those they had
previously detested. In order to compose an irresistible
charm, they merely required a little blood from a person,

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the tracing by GOLENISCHEFF, Die
Netternlcli-Slele, pi. iii. 14.

INVOCATIONS AND SPELLS 305

a few nail-parings, some hair, or a scrap of linen which
he had worn, and which, from contact with his skin,
had become impregnated with his personality. Portions
of these were incorporated with the wax of a doll which
they modelled, and clothed to resemble their victim ;
thenceforward all the inflictions to which the image was
subjected were experienced by the original; he was con
sumed with fever when his effigy was exposed to the
fire, he was wounded when the figure was pierced by a
knife. The Pharaohs themselves had no immunity from
these spells. 1 These machinations were wont to be met
by others of the same kind, and magic, if invoked at
the right moment, was often able to annul the ills which
magic had begun. It was not indeed all-powerful against
fate : the man born on the 27th of Paophi would die
of a snake-bite, whatever charm he might use to protect
himself. But if the day of his death were foreordained,
at all events the year in which it would occur was un
certain, and it was easy for the magician to arrange
that it should not take place prematurely. A formula
recited opportunely, a sentence of prayer traced on a
papyrus, a little statuette worn about the person, the
smallest amulet blessed and consecrated, put to flight
the serpents who were the instruments of fate. Those
curious stelae on which we see Horus half naked, standing
on two crocodiles and brandishing in his fists creatures
which had reputed powers of fascination, were so many

1 Spells were employed against Ramses III., and the evidence in the
criminal charge brought against the magicians explicitly mentions the wax
figures and the philters used on this occasion.

VOL. I. X

306

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

protecting talismans; set up at the entrance to a room
or a house, they kept off the animals represented and

THE CHILD HORUS ON THE CROCODILES. 1

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an Alexandrian stele in the Gizeh
Museum. The reason for the appearance of so many different animals in
this stele and in others of the same nature, has been given by MASPEEO,

PROTECTING TALISMANS 307

brought the evil fate to nought. Sooner or later destiny
would doubtless prevail, and the moment would come
when the fated serpent, eluding all precautions, would
succeed in carrying out the sentence of death. At all
events the man would have lived, perhaps to the verge
of old age, perhaps to the years of a hundred and ten,
to which the wisest of the Egyptians hoped to attain,
and which period no man born of mortal mother might
exceed. If the arts of magic could thus suspend the
law of destiny, how much more efficacious were they
when combating the influences of secondary deities, the
evil eye, and the spells of man ? Thot, who was the
patron of sortilege, presided also over exorcisms, and
the criminal acts which some committed in his name
could have reparation made for them by others in his
name. To malicious genii, genii still stronger were
opposed ; to harmful amulets, those which were pro
tective ; to destructive measures, vitalizing remedies ;
and this was not even the most troublesome part of
the magicians task. Nobody, in fact, among those
delivered by their intervention escaped unhurt from the
trials to which he had been subjected. The possessing
spirits when they quitted their victim generally left
behind them traces of their occupation, in the brain,
heart, lungs, intestines in fact, in the whole body.
The illnesses to which the human race is prone, were
not indeed all brought about by enchanters relentlessly

iudes de Mythologie et d Archeologie figyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 417-419 ; they
were all supposed to possess the evil eye and to be able to fascinate their
victim before striking him.

308 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OP EGYPT

persecuting their enemies, but they were all attributed
to the presence of an invisible being, whether spectre
or demon, who by some supernatural means had been
made to enter the patient, or who, unbidden, had by
malice or necessity taken up his abode within him. It
was needful, after expelling the intruder, to re-establish
the health of the sufferer by means of fresh remedies.
The study of simples and other materise medicse would
furnish these ; Thot had revealed himself to man as
the first magician, he became in like manner for them
the first physician and the first surgeon.

Egypt is naturally a very salubrious country, and the
Egyptians boasted that they were "the healthiest of all
mortals ; " but they did not neglect any precautions to
maintain their health. " Every month, for three suc
cessive days, they purged the system by means of
emetics or clysters. The study of medicine with them
was divided between specialists ; each physician attend
ing to one kind of illness only. Every place possessed
several doctors ; some for diseases of the eyes, others
for the head, or the teeth, or the stomach, or for in
ternal diseases." But the subdivision was not carried
to the extent that Herodotus would make us believe.
It was the custom to make a distinction only between
the physician trained in the priestly schools, and further
instructed by daily practice and the study of books,
the bone-setter attached to the worship of Sokhit who
treated fractures by the intercession of the goddess,-
and the exorcist who professed to cure by the sole
virtue of amulets and magic phrases. The professional

THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE 309

doctor treated all kinds of maladies, but, as with us,
there were specialists for certain affections, who were
consulted in preference to general practitioners. If the
number of these specialists was so considerable as to
attract the attention of strangers, it was because the
climatic character of the country necessitated it. Where
ophthalmia and affections of the intestines raged violently,
we necessarily find many oculists 1 as well as doctors for
internal maladies. The best instructed, however, knew
but little of anatomy. As with the Christian physicians
of the Middle Ages, religious scruples prevented the
Egyptians from cutting open or dissecting, in the cause
of pure science, the dead body which was identified with
that of Osiris. The processes of embalming, which would
have instructed them in anatomy, were not intrusted
to doctors ; the horror was so great with which any
one was regarded who mutilated the human form, that
the "paraschite," on whom devolved the duty of making
the necessary incisions in the dead, became the object
of universal execration : as soon as he had finished his
task, the assistants assaulted him, throwing stones at
him with such violence that he had to take to his heels
to escape with his life. 2 The knowledge of what went
on within the body was therefore but vague. Life
seemed to be a little air, a breath which was conveyed
by the veins from member to member. " The head
contains twenty-two vessels, which draw the spirits
into it and send them thence to all parts of the body.

1 Affections of the eyes occupy one-fourth of the Ebers Papyrus.

2 DIODORUS SICULUS, i. 91,

310

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

There are two vessels for the breasts, which communi
cate heat to the lower parts. There are two vessels for
the thighs, two for the neck, two for the arms, two for
the back of the head, two for the forehead, two for the
eyes, two for the eyelids, two for the right ear by
which enter the breaths of life, and two for the left
ear which in like manner admit the breaths of death."

The " breaths " entering by
the right ear, are " the good
airs, the delicious airs of
the north ; the sea-breeze
which tempers the burning
of summer and renews the
strength of man, continually
weakened by the heat and
threatened with exhaustion.
These vital spirits, entering
the veins and arteries by the
ear or nose, mingled with
the blood, which carried
them to all parts of the
body; they sustained the
animal, and were, so to speak, the cause of its movement.
The heart, the perpetual mover Haiti collected them and
redistributed them throughout the body : it was regarded
as " the beginning of al] the members," and whatever part

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by NAVILLE, in the JEgyptitcko
Todtenbuch, vol. i. pi. Ixix. The deceased carries in this hand a sail inflated
by the wind, symbolizing the air, and holds it to his nostrils that he may
inhale the breaths which will fill anew his arteries, and bring life to his
liinbs.

A DEAD MAX RECEIVING THE BREATH OF
LIFE. 1

THE VITAL SPIRITS 311

of the living body the physician touched, " whether the
head, the nape of the neck, the hands, the breast, the
arms, the legs, his hand lit upon the heart," and he
felt it beating under his fingers. Under the influence
of the good breaths, the vessels were inflated and worked
regularly ; under that of the evil, they became inflamed,
were obstructed, were hardened, or gave way, and the
physician had to remove the obstruction, allay the in
flammation, and re-establish their vigour and elasticity.
At the moment of death, the vital spirits " withdrew
with the soul; the blood," deprived of air, "became
coagulated, the veins and arteries emptied themselves,
and the creature perished " for want of breaths.

The majority of the diseases from which the ancient
Egyptians suffered, are those which still attack their suc
cessors ; ophthalmia, affections of the stomach, abdomen,
and bladder, intestinal worms, varicose veins, ulcers in the
leg, the Nile pimple, and finally the " divine mortal
malady," the divinus morbus of the Latins, epilepsy.
Anaemia, from which at least one-fourth of the present
population suffers, was not less prevalent than at present,
if we may judge from the number of remedies which were
used against hsematuria, the principal cause of it. The
fertility of the women entailed a number of infirmities or
local affections which the doctors attempted to relieve, not
always with success. 1 The science of those days treated

1 With regard to the diseases of women, cf. Ebers Papyrus, pis. xciii.,
xcviii., etc. Several of the recipes are devoted to the solution of a problem
which appears to have greatly exercised the mind of the ancients, viz. the
determination of the sex of a child before its birth.

312 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

externals only, and occupied itself merely with symptoms
easily determined by sight or touch; it never suspected
that troubles which showed themselves in two widely
remote parts of the body might only be different effects of
the same illness, and they classed as distinct maladies those
indications which we now know to be the symptoms of one
disease. They were able, however, to determine fairly well
the specific characteristics of ordinary affections, and some
times described them in a precise and graphic fashion.
" The abdomen is heavy, the pit of the stomach painful,
the heart burns and palpitates violently. The clothing
oppresses the sick man and he can barely support it. Noc
turnal thirsts. His heart is sick, as that of a man who has
eaten of the sycamore gum. The flesh loses its sensitive
ness as that of a man seized with illness. If he seek to
satisfy a want of nature he finds no relief. Say to this,
There is an accumulation of humours in the abdomen,
which makes the heart sick. I will act. This is the
beginning of gastric fever so common in Egypt, and a
modern physician could not better diagnose such a case ;
the phraseology would be less flowery, but the analysis of
the symptoms would not differ from that given us by the
ancient practitioner. The medicaments recommended com
prise nearly everything which can in some way or other be
swallowed, whether in solid, mucilaginous, or liquid form.
Vegetable remedies are reckoned by the score, from the
most modest herb to the largest tree, such as the sycamore,
palm, acacia, and cedar, of which the sawdust and shavings
were supposed to possess both antiseptic and emollient
properties. Among the mineral substances are to be noted

DIAGNOSIS AND REMEDIES 313

sea-salt, alum, nitre, sulphate of copper, and a score of
different kinds of stones among the latter the " memphite
stone was distinguished for its virtues ; if applied to parts
of the body which were lacerated or unhealthy, it acted as
an anaesthetic and facilitated the success of surgical opera
tions. Flesh taken from the living subject, the heart, the
liver, the gall, the blood either dried or liquid of animals,
the hair and horn of stags, were all customarily used in
many cases where the motive determining their preference
above other materise medicse is unknown to us. Many
recipes puzzle us by their originality and by the barbaric
character of the ingredients recommended : " the milk of a
woman who has given birth to a boy," the dung of a lion,
a tortoise s brains, an old book boiled in oil. 1 The medica
ments compounded of these incongruous substances were
often very complicated. It was thought that the healing
power was increased by multiplying the curative elements ;
each ingredient acted upon a specific region of the body,
and after absorption, separated itself from the rest to bring
its influence to bear upon that region. The physician made
use of all the means which we employ to-day to introduce
remedies into the human system, whether pills or potions,

1 Ebers Papyrus, pi. Ixxviii. 1. 22 Ixxix. 1. 1 : " To relieve a child who
is constipated. An old book. Boil it in oil, and apply half to the stomach,
to provoke evacuation." It must not be forgotten that, the writings being
on papyrus, the old book in question, once boiled, would have an effect
analogous to that of our linseed-meal poultices. If the physician recom
mended taking an old one, it was for economical reasons merely ; the
Egyptians of the middle classes would always have in their possession a
number of letters, copy-books, and other worthless waste papers, of which
they would gladly rid themselves in such a profitable manner.

314 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OP EGYPT

poultices, or ointments, draughts or clysters. Not only did
he give the prescriptions, but he made them up, thus com
bining the art of the physician with that of the dispenser.
He prescribed the ingredients, pounded them either sepa
rately or together, he macerated them in the proper way,
boiled them, reduced them by heating, and filtered them
through linen. Fat served him as the ordinary vehicle for
ointments, and pure water for potions ; but he did not
despise other liquids, such as wine, beer (fermented or un-
fermented), vinegar, milk, olive oil, "ben" oil either crude
or refined, even the urine of men and animals : the whole,
sweetened with honey, was taken hot, night and morning.
The use of more than one of these remedies became world
wide ; the Greeks borrowed them from the Egyytians ; we
have piously accepted them from the Greeks ; and our con
temporaries still swallow with resignation many of the
abominable mixtures invented on the banks of the Nile,
long before the building of the Pyramids.

It was Thot who had taught men arithmetic ; Thot
had revealed to them the mysteries of geometry and men
suration; Thot had constructed instruments and promul
gated the laws of music ; Thot had instituted the art of
drawing, and had codified its unchanging rules. He had
been the inventor or patron of all that was useful or beauti
ful in the Nile valley, and the climax of his beneficence was
reached by his invention of the principles of writing, with
out which humanity would have been liable to forget his
teaching, and to lose the advantage of his discoveries. It
has been sometimes questioned whether writing, instead of
having been a benefit to the Egyptians, did not rather

THOT, THE INVENTOR OF WRITING

315

mmmj

i-^llr.-r." 1 !!

injure them. An old legend relates that when the god
unfolded his discovery to King Thames, whose minister
he was, the monarch immediately raised an objection to it.
Children and young people, who had hitherto been forced
to apply themselves diligently
to learn and retain whatever
was taught them, now that
they possessed a means of
storing up knowledge without
trouble, would cease to apply
themselves, and would neglect
to exercise their memories.
Whether Thames was right or
not, the criticism came too
late : " the ingenious art of
painting words and of s t peaking
to the eyes had once for
all been acquired by the
Egyptians, and through them
by the greater part of man
kind. It was a very complex
system, in which were united
most of the methods fitted for
giving expression to thought,
namely : those which were limited to the presentment of

TIIOT KECORDS THE YEARS OF THE LIFE
OF RAMSES II. 1

1 Bas-relief of the temple of Seti I. at Abydos, drawn by Boudier, from a
photograph by Beato. The god is marking with his reed-pen upon the
notches of a long frond of palm, the duration in millions of years of the
reign of Pharaoh upon this earth, in accordance with the decree of the

gods.

316 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OP EGYPT

the idea, and those which were intended to suggest sounds.
At the outset the use was confined to signs intended to
awaken the idea of the ohject in the mind of the reader by
the more or less faithful picture of the object itself; for
example, they depicted the sun by a centred disc , the
moon by a crescent , a lion by a lion in the act of walk
ing Jo*,, a man by a small figure in a squatting attitude ^.
As by this method it was possible to convey only a very
restricted number of entirely materialistic concepts, ifc
became necessary to have recourse to various artifices in
order to make up for the shortcomings of the ideograms
properly so-called. The part was put for the whole, the
pupil in place of the whole eye .&lt;*, the head of the ox
* instead of the complete ox ^W5. The Egyptians sub
stituted cause for effect and effect for cause, the instrument
for the work accomplished, and the disc of the sun signi
fied the day ; a smoking brazier J the fire : the brush,
inkpot, and palette of the scribe ffjj denoted writing or
written documents. They conceived the idea of employing
some object which presented an actual or supposed re
semblance to the notion to be conveyed ; thus, the foreparts
of a lion _f denoted priority, supremacy, command ; the
wasp symbolized royalty ^, and a tadpole &gt; stood for
hundreds of thousands. They ventured finally to use con
ventionalisms, as for instance when they drew the axe
for a god, or the ostrich-feather \ for justice ; the sign in
these cases had only a conventional connection with the
concept assigned to it. At times two or three of these
symbols were associated in order to express conjointly an
idea which would have been inadequately rendered by one

IDEOGRAPHIC AND SYLLABIC SIGNS 317

of them alone : a five-pointed star placed under an inverted
crescent moon "7* denoted a month, a calf running before
the sign for water &gt;t~g indicated thirst. All these arti
fices combined furnished, however, but a very incomplete
means of seizing and transmitting thought. When the
writer had written out twenty or thirty of these signs and
the ideas which they were supposed to embody, he had
before him only the skeleton of a sentence, from which the
flesh and sinews had disappeared ; the tone and rhythm of
the words were wanting, as were also the indications of
gender, number, person, and inflection, which distinguish
the different parts of speech and determine the varying
relations between them. Besides this, in order to under
stand for himself and to guess the meaning of the author,
the reader was obliged to translate the symbols which he
deciphered, by means of words which represented in the
spoken language the pronunciation of each symbol. When
ever he looked at them, they suggested to him both the
idea and the word for the idea, and consequently a sound
or group of sounds ; when each of them had thus acquired
three or four invariable associations of sound, he forgot
their purely ideographic value and accustomed himself to
consider them merely as notations of sound.

The first experiment in phonetics was a species of rebus,
where each of the signs, divorced from its original sense,
served to represent several words, similar in sound, but
differing in meaning in the spoken language. The same
group of articulations, Naufir, Nofir, conveyed in Egyptian
the concrete idea of a lute and the abstract idea of beauty ;
the sign J expressed at once the lute and beauty.

318 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OP EGYPT

The beetle was called Khopirru, and the verb "to be " was
pronounced khopiru : the figure of the beetle & conse
quently signified both the insect and the verb, and by
farther combining with it other signs, the articulation of
each corresponding syllable was given in detail. The sieve
JcJiau, the mat pit, pi, the mouth &lt;= ra, ru, gave the
formula khau-pi-ru, which was equivalent to the sound of
khopirti, the verb "to be : " grouped together _, they de
noted in writing the concept of "to be by means of a
triple rebus. In this system, each syllable of a word could
be represented by one of several signs, all sounding alike.
One-half of these " syllables " stood for open, the other half
for closed syllables, and the use of the former soon brought
about the formation of a true alphabet. The final vowel in
them became detached, and left only the remaining con
sonant for example, r in ru, li in ha, n in ni, b in bu so
that &lt;= ru, |~j] ha, * ni, bu, eventually stood for r, h, n,
and b only. This process in the course of time having been
applied to a certain number of syllables, furnished a fairly
large alphabet, in which several letters represented each of
the twenty-two chief articulations, which the scribes con
sidered sufficient for their purposes. The signs correspond
ing to one and the same letter were homophones or
" equivalents in sound : \, *=, f , are homophones, just
as *&lt;* and ^, because each of them, in the group to which
it belongs, may be indifferently used to translate to the eye
the articulations m or n. One w r ould have thought that
when the Egyptians had arrived thus far, they would have
been led, as a matter of course, to reject the various cha
racters which they had used each in its turn, in order to

IDEOGRAPHIC AND SYLLABIC SIGNS 319

retain an alphabet only. But the true spirit of invention,
of which they had given proof, abandoned them here as
elsewhere : if the merit of a discovery was often their due,
they were rarely able to bring their invention to perfection.
They kept the ideographic and syllabic signs which they
had used at the outset, and, with the residue of their suc
cessive notations, made for themselves a most complicated
system, in which syllables and ideograms were mingled
with letters properly so called. There is a little of every
thing in an Egyptian phrase, sometimes even in a word ;
as, for instance, in jfin f maszirfi, the ear, or .&gt;t-*
kherdti, the voice ; there are the syllables fo mas, Ji zir
ru, I kher, the ordinary letters s, ^ $, -= r, which com
plete the phonetic pronunciation, and finally the ideograms,
namely, 9, which gives the picture of the ear by the side of
the written word for it, and 2) which proves that the
letters represent a term designating an action of the mouth.
This medley had its advantages ; it enabled the Egyptians
to make clear, by the picture of the object, the sense of
words which letters alone might sometimes insufficiently
explain. The system demanded a serious effort of memory
and long years of study ; indeed, many people never com
pletely mastered it. The picturesque appearance of the
sentences, in which we see representations of men, animals,
furniture, weapons, and tools grouped together in successive
little pictures, rendered hieroglyphic writing specially suit
able for the decoration of the temples of the gods or the
palaces of kings. Mingled with scenes of worship, sacrifice,
battle, or private life, the inscriptions frame or separate
groups of personages, and occupy the vacant spaces which

320 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OP EGYPT

the sculptor or painter was at a loss to fill; hieroglyphic
writing is pre-eminently a monumental script. For the
ordinary purposes of life it was traced in black or red ink
on fragments of limestone or pottery, or on wooden tablets
covered with stucco, and specially on the fibres of papyrus.
The exigencies of haste and the unskilfulness of scribes
soon changed both its appearance and its elements ; the
characters when contracted, superimposed and united to
one another with connecting strokes, preserved only the
most distant resemblance to the persons or things which
they had originally represented. This cursive writing,
which was somewhat incorrectly termed hieratic, was used
only for public or private documents, for administrative
correspondence, or for the propagation of literary, scientific,
and religious works.

It was thus that tradition was pleased to ascribe to
the gods, and among them to Thot the doubly great
the invention of all the arts and sciences which gave to
Egypt its glory and prosperity. It was clear, not only
to the vulgar, but to the wisest of the nation, that, had
their ancestors been left merely to their own resources,
they would never have succeeded in raising themselves
much above the level of the brutes. The idea that a
discovery of importance to the country could have risen
in a human brain, and, once made known, could have
been spread and developed by the efforts of successive
generations, appeared to them impossible to accept.
They believed that every art, every trade, had remained
unaltered from the outset, and if some novelty in its
aspect tended to show them their error, they preferred to

THE TABLES OF THE KINGS 321

imagine a divine intervention, rather than be undeceived.
The mystic writing, inserted as chapter sixty-four in the
Book of the Dead, and which subsequently was supposed
to be of decisive moment to the future life of man, was,
as they knew, posterior in date to the other formulas of
which this book was composed; they did not, however,
regard it any the less as being of divine origin. It had
been found one day, without any one knowing whence it
came, traced in blue characters on a plaque of alabaster,
at the foot of the statue of Thot, in the sanctuary of
Hermopolis. A prince, Hardiduf, had discovered it in his
travels, and regarding it as a miraculous object, had
brought it to his sovereign. This king, according to
some, was Husaphaiti of the first dynasty, but by others
was believed to be the pious Mykerinos. In the same
way, the book on medicine, dealing with the diseases of
women, was held not to be the work of a practitioner ;
it had revealed itself to a priesfc watching at night before
the Holy of Holies in the temple of Isis at Coptos.
" Although the earth was plunged into darkness, the
moon shone upon it and enveloped it with light. It was
sent as a great wonder to the holiness of King Kheops,
the just of speech." The gods had thus exercised a
direct influence upon men until they became entirely
civilized, and this work of culture was apportioned among
the three divine dynasties according to the strength of
each. The first, which comprised the most vigorous
divinities, had accomplished the more difficult task of
establishing the world on a solid basis ; the second had
carried on the education of the Egyptians ; and the third
VOL. i. Y

322 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

had regulated, in all its minutiae, the religious constitution
of the country. When there was nothing more demand
ing supernatural strength or intelligence to establish it,
the gods returned to heaven, and were succeeded on the
throne by mortal men. One tradition maintained dog
matically that the first human king whose memory it
preserved, followed immediately after the last of the
gods, who, in quitting the palace, had made over the
crown to man as his heir, and that the change of nature
had not entailed any interruption in the line of sovereigns.
Another tradition would not allow that the contact between
the human and divine series had been so close. Between
the Ennead and Menes, it intercalated one or more lines
of Theban or Thinite kings ; but these were of so formless,
shadowy, and undefined an aspect, that they were called
Manes, and there was attributed to them at most only
a passive existence, as of persons who had always been
in the condition of the dead, and had never been subjected
to the trouble of passing through life. Menes was the
first in order of those who were actually living. From
his time, the Egyptians claimed to possess an uninter
rupted list of the Pharaohs who had ruled over the Nile
valley. As far back as the XVIII th dynasty this list was
written upon papyrus, and furnished the number of years
that each prince occupied the throne, or the length of
his life. 1 Extracts from it were inscribed in the temples,

1 The only one of these lists which we possess, the "Turin Royal
Papyrus," was bought, nearly intact, at Thebes, by Drovetti, about 18
but was accidentally injured by him in bringing home. The fragments of it
were acquired, together with the rest of the collection, by the Piedmontese
Government in 1820, and placed in the Turin Museum, where Champollion

THE TABLES OP THE KINGS 323

or even in the tombs of private persons ; and three of
these abridged catalogues are still extant, two coming
from the temples of Seti I. and Ramses II. at Abydos, 1
while the other was discovered in the tomb of a person
of rank named Tunari, at Saqqara. 2 They divided this
interminable succession of often problematical personages
into dynasties, following in this division, rules of which
we are ignorant, and which varied in the course of ages.
In the time of the Eamessides, names in the list which
subsequently under the Lagides formed five groups were
made to constitute one single dynasty. 3 Manetho of

saw and drew attention to them in 1824. Seyffarth carefully collected and
arranged them in the order in which they now are ; subsequently Lepsius
gave a facsimile of them in 1840, in his Ausvaahl der wiclitigsten Urkunden,
pis. i.-vi. , but this did not include the verso ; Champollion-Figeac edited in
1847, in the Revue Archeologique, 1st series, vol. vi., the tracings taken by
the younger Charnpollion before Seyffarth s arrangement ; lastly, Wilkinson
published the whole in detail in 1851. Since then, the document has been
the subject of continuous investigation : E. de Rouge has reconstructed, in
an almost conclusive manner, the pages containing the first six dynasties,
and Lauth, with less certainty, those which deal with the eight following
dynasties.

1 The first table of Abydos, unfortunately incomplete, was discovered in
the temple of Ramses II. by Banks, in 1818 ; the copy published by Caillaud
and by Salt served as a foundation for Champollion s first investigations on
the history of Egypt. The original, brought to France by Mimaut, was
acquired by England, and is now in the British Museum. The second
table, which is complete, all but a few signs, was brought to light by
Mariette in 1864, in the excavations at Abydos, and was immediately
noticed and published by DCMICIIEN. The text of it is to be found in
MARIETTE, La Nouvelle Table &lt;T Abydos (Revue Arche oloyique, 2nd series, vol.
xiii.), and Abydos, vol. i. pi. 43.

2 The table of Saqqara, discovered in 1863, has been published by
MARIETTE, La Table de Saqqdra (Revue Arche ologique, 2nd series, vol. x. p.
169, et seq.), and reproduced in the Monuments Divers, pi. 58.

3 The Royal Canon of Turin, which dates from the Ramesside period,

324 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

Sebennytos, who wrote a history of Europe for the use
of Alexandrine Greeks, had adopted, on some unknown
authority, a division of thirty-one dynasties from Menes
to the Macedonian Conquest, and his system has pre
vailed not, indeed, on account of its excellence, but
because it is the only complete one which has come down
to us. 1 All the families inscribed in his lists ruled in
succession. 2 The country was no doubt frequently broken
up into a dozen or more independent states, each
possessing its own kings during several generations ; but
the annalists had from the outset discarded these collateral
lines, and recognized only one legitimate dynasty, of
which the rest were but vassals. Their theory of legi
timacy does not always agree with actual history, and
the particular line of princes which they rejected as

gives, indeed, the names of these early kings without a break, until the list
reaches Unas ; at this point it sums up the number of Pharaohs and the
aggregate years of their reigns, thus indicating the end of a dynasty. In
the intervals between the dynasties rubrics are placed, pointing out the
changes which took place in the order of direct succession. The division of
the same group of sovereigns into five dynasties has been preserved to us by
Manetho.

1 The best restoration of the system of Manetho is that by LEPSIUS, Das
Konigsbuch der Alien jEgypter, which should be completed and corrected
from the memoirs of Lauth, Lieblein, Krall, and Unger. A common fault
attaches to all these memoirs, so remarkable in many respects. They regard
the work of Manetho, not as representing a more or less ingenious system
applied to Egyptian history, but as furnishing an authentic scheme of this
history, in which it is necessary to enclose all the royal names which the
monuments have revealed, and are still daily revealing to us.

2 E. de Rouge triumphantly demonstrated, in opposition to Bunsen,
now nearly fifty years ago, that all Manetho s dynasties are successive, and
the monuments discovered from year to year in Egypt have confirmed his
demonstration in every detail.

OSSS;

dte-g-!*- -. :&lt; -" =^g ^_ _,r ..~a

^ZUr^

5 S

H tD

H I
S

CHRONICLERS OF THE PAST 327

usurpers represented at times the only family possessing
true rights to the crown. 1 In Egypt, as elsewhere, the
official chroniclers were often obliged to accommodate
the past to the exigencies of the present, and to manipulate
the annals to suit the reigning party ; while obeying their
orders the chroniclers deceived posterity, and it is only
by a rare chance that we can succeed in detecting them
in the act of falsification, and can re-establish the truth.

The system of Manetho, in the state in which it has
been handed down to us by epitomizers, has rendered,
and continues to render, service to science ; if it is not
the actual history of Egypt, it is a sufficiently faithful
substitute to warrant our not neglecting it when we
wish to understand and reconstruct the sequence of
events. His dynasties furnish the necessary framework
for most of the events and revolutions, of which the
monuments have preserved us a record. At the outset,
the centre to which the affairs of the country gravitated
was in the extreme north of the valley. The principality
which extended from the entrance of the Fayum to the

1 It is enough to give two striking examples of this. The royal lists of
the time of the Ramessides suppress, at the end of the XVIII th dynasty,
Amenothes IV. and several of his successors, and give the following sequence
Amenothes III., Harmhabit, Ramses I., without any apparent hiatus;
Manetho, on the contrary, replaces the kings who were omitted, and keeps
approximately to the real order between Horos (Amenothes III.) and
Armai s (Harmhabit). Again, the official tradition of the XX th dynasty
gives, between Ramses II. and Ramses III., the sequence Minephtah, Seti
II., Nakht-Seti ; Manetho, on the other hand, gives Amenemes followed by
Thuoris, who appear to correspond to the Amenmeses and Siphtah of con
temporary monuments, but, after Minephtah, he omits Seti II. and Nakhitou-
Seti, the father of Ramses III.

328 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

apex of the Delta, and subsequently the town of Memphis
itself, imposed their sovereigns upon the remaining nomes,
served as an emporium for commerce and national in
dustries, and received homage and tribute from neigh
bouring peoples. About the time of the VI th dynasty
this centre of gravity was displaced, and tended towards
the interior ; it was arrested for a short time at Heracleo-
polis (IX th and X th dynasties), and ended by fixing itself
at Thebes (XI th dynasty). From henceforth Thebes
became the capital, and furnished Egypt with her rulers.
With the exception of the XIV th Xo ite dynasty, all the
families occupying the throne from the XI th to the XX th
dynasty were Theban. When the barbarian shepherds
invaded Africa from Asia, the Thebaid became the last
refuge and bulwark of Egyptian nationality ; its chiefs
struggled for many centuries against the conquerors before
they were able to deliver the rest of the valley. It
was a Theban dynasty, the XVIII 1h , which inaugurated
the era of foreign conquest ; but after the XIX th , a move
ment, the reverse of that which had taken place towards
the end of the first period, brought back the centre of
gravity, little by little, towards the north of the country.
From the time of the XXI st dynasty, Thebes ceased to
hold the position of capital : Tanis, Bubastis, Mendes,
Sebennytos, and above all, Sais, disputed the supremacy
with each other, and political life was concentrated in
the maritime provinces. Those of the interior, ruined
by Ethiopian and Assyrian invasions, lost their influence
and gradually dwindled away. Thebes became im
poverished and depopulated ; it fell into ruins, and soon

THE GREAT HISTORICAL PERIODS 329

was nothing more than a resort for devotees or travellers.
The history of Egypt is, therefore, divided into three
periods, each corresponding to the suzerainty of a town
or a principality :

I. MEMPHITE PEEIOD, usually called the " Ancient
Empire," from the I st to the X th dynasty : kings of
Memphite origin ruled over the whole of Egypt during
the greater part of this epoch.

II. THEBAN PEBIOD, from the XI th to the XX th dynasty.
It is divided into two parts by the invasion of the
Shepherds (XVI th dynasty) :

a. The first Theban Empire (Middle Empire), from

the XI th to the XIV th dynasty.

b. The new Theban Empire, from the XVII th to the

XX th dynasty.

III. -SAITE PEEIOD, from the XXI st to the XXX th
dynasty, divided into two unequal parts by the Persian
Conquest :

a. The first Saite period, from the XXI st to the

XXVI th dynasty.

b. The second Saite period, from the XXVIII th to

the XXX th dynasty.

The Memphites had created the monarchy. The
Thebans extended the rule of Egypt far and wide, and
made of her a conquering state : for nearly six centuries
she ruled over the Upper Nile and over Western Asia.
Under the Saites she retired gradually within her natural
frontiers, and from having been aggressive became assailed,

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

and suffered herself to be crushed in turn by all the
nations she had once oppressed. 1

The monuments have as yet yielded no account of
the events which tended to unite the country under the
rule of one man ; we can only surmise that the feudal
principalities had gradually been drawn together into
two groups, each of which formed a separate kingdom.
Heliopolis became the chief focus in the north, from
which civilization radiated over the rich plains and the
marshes of the Delta. Its colleges of priests had collected,
condensed, and arranged the principal myths of the
local religions ; the Ennead to which it gave conception
would never have obtained the popularity which we must
acknowledge it had, if its princes had not exercised, for
at least some period, an actual suzerainty over the neigh
bouring plains. It was around Heliopolis that the
kingdom of Lower Egypt was organized; everything
there bore traces of Heliopolitan theories the protocol
of the kings, their supposed descent from Ea, and the
enthusiastic worship which they offered to the sun.
The Delta, owing to its compact and restricted area,
was aptly suited for government from one centre; the
Nile valley proper, narrow, tortuous, and stretching like
a thin strip on either bank of the river, did not lend
itself to so complete a unity. It, too, represented a

The division into Ancient, Middle, and New Empire, proposed by
Lepsius, has the disadvantage of not taking into account the influence
which the removal of the seat of the dynasties exercised on the history of
the country. The arrangement which I have here adopted was first put
forward in the Revue critique, 1873, vol. i. pp. 82, 83.

MENES OF THINIS 331

single kingdom, having the reed ^ and the lotus
for its emblems; but its component parts were more
loosely united, its religion was less systematized, and
it lacked a well-placed city to serve as a political and
sacerdotal centre. Hermopolis contained schools of
theologians who certainly played an important part in
the development of myths and dogmas ; but the influence
of its rulers was never widely felt. In the south, Siut
disputed their supremacy, and Heracleopolis stopped
their road to the north. These three cities thwarted
and neutralized one another, and not one of them ever
succeeded in obtaining a lasting authority over Upper
Egypt. Each of the two kingdoms had its own natural
advantages and its system of government, which gave
to it a particular character, and stamped it, as it were,
with a distinct personality down to its latest days. The
kingdom of Upper Egypt was more powerful, richer,
better populated, and was governed apparently by more
active and enterprising rulers. It is to one of the latter,
Mini or Menes of Thinis, that tradition ascribes the
honour of having fused the two Egypts into a single
empire, and of having inaugurated the reign of the
human dynasties. Thinis figured in the historic period
as one of the least of Egyptian cities. It barely main
tained an existence on the left bank of the Nile, if not
on the exact spot now occupied by Girgeh, at least only
a short distance from it. 1 The principality of the Osirian

1 The site of Thinis is not yet satisfactorily identified. It is neither at
Kom-es-Sultan, as Mariette thought, nor, according to the hypothesis of A.
Schmidt, at El-Kherbeh. Brugsch has proposed to fix the site at the village

332

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

Eeliquary, of which it was the metropolis, occupied the
valley from one mountain range to the other, and gradually
extended across the desert as far as the Great Theban
Oasis. Its inhabitants worshipped a sky-god, Anhuri,
or rather two twin gods, Anhuri- Shu, who were speedily

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amalgamated with the solar deities and became a war
like personification of Ea. Anhuri- Shu, like all the other

of Tineh, near Berdis, and is followed in this by Diimichen. The present
tendency is to identify it either with Girgeh itself, or with one of the small
neighbouring towns for example, Birbeh where there are some ancient
ruins ; this was also the opinion of Champollion and of Nester L hote. I
may mention that, in a frequently quoted passage of Hellanicos, Zoega
corrects the reading TtV&lt;W ovo/xa into / 8e ot ovo/xa, which would once more
give us the name of Thinis : the mention of this town as being Im-noTa.^,
" situated on the river," would be a fresh reason for its identification with
Girgeh.

I BT DYNASTY TOMBS AT ABYDOS 333

solar manifestations, came to be associated with a goddess
haying the form or head of a lioness a Sokhit, who took
for the occasion the epithet of Mihit, the northern one.
Some of the dead from this city are buried on the other
side of the Nile, near the modern village of Mesheikh,
at the foot of the Arabian chain, whose steep cliffs here
approach somewhat near the river : the principal necropolis
was at some distance to the east, near the sacred town
of Abydos. It would appear that, at the outset, Abydos
was the capital of the country, for the entire nome bore
the same name as the city, and had adopted for its
symbol the representation of the reliquary in which the
god reposed. In very early times Abydos fell into decay,
and resigned its political rank to Thinis, but its religious
importance remained unimpaired. The city occupied a
long and narrow strip of land between the canal and the
first slopes of the Libyan mountains. A brick fortress
defended it from the incursions of the Bedouin, and
beside it the temple of the god of the dead reared its
naked walls. Here, Anhuui, having passed from life to
death, was worshipped under the name of Khontamentlt,
the chief of that western region whither souls repair on
quitting this earth. It is impossible to say by what
blending of doctrines or by what political combinations
this Sun of the Night came to be identified with Osiris
of Mendes, since the fusion dates back to a very remote
antiquity; it had become an established fact long before
the most ancient sacred books were compiled. Osiris
Khontamentit grew rapidly in popular favour, and his
temple attracted annually an increasing number of

334 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OP EGYPT

pilgrims. The Great Oasis had been considered at first
as a sort of mysterious paradise, whither the dead went
in search of peace and happiness. It was called Uit,
the Sepulchre ; this name clung to it after it had
become an actual Egyptian province, and the remem
brance of its ancient purpose survived in the minds of
the people, so that the " cleft," or gorge in the mountain
through which the doubles journeyed towards it, never
ceased to be regarded as one of the gates of the other
world. At the time of the New Year festivals, spirits
nocked thither from all parts of the valley; they there
awaited the coining of the dying sun, in order to embark
with him and enter safely the dominions of Khontamentit.
Abydos, even before the historic period, was the only
town, and its god the only god, whose worship, practised
by all Egyptians, inspired them all with an equal devotion.
The excavations of the last few years have brought to
light some, at all events, of the oldest Pharaohs known
to the Egyptian annalists, namely, those whom they
placed in their first human dynasties; and the locality
where the monuments of these princes were discovered,
shows us that these writers were correct in representing
Thinis as playing an important part in the history of
the early ages of their country. If the tomb of Menes
that sovereign whom we are inclined to look upon as
the first king of the official lists lies near the village of
Nagadeh, not far from Thebes, 1 those of his immediate
successors are close to Thinis, in the cemeteries of

1 The objects found during these excavations are now in the Gizeh
Museum.

I st DYNASTY TOMBS AT ABYDOS 335

Abydos. 1 They stand at the very foot of the Libyan
hills, near the entrance to the ravine the " Cleft
through which the mysterious oasis was reached, and
thither the souls flocked in order that they might enter
by a safe way the land beyond the grave. 2 The mass
of pottery, whole and broken, which has accumulated
on this site from the offerings of centuries has obtained
for it among the Fellahin the name of Omm-el-Gaab
" the mother of pots." The tombs there lie in serried
ranks. They present for the most part a rough model
of the pyramids of the Memphite period rectangular
structures of bricks without mortar rising slightly above
the level of the plain. The funeral chamber occupies
the centre of each, and is partly hollowed out of the
soil, like a shallow well, the sides being bricked. It
had a flat timber roof, covered by a layer of about three
feet of sand ; the floor also was of wood, and in several
cases the remains of the beams of both ceiling and pave
ment have been brought to light. The body of the
royal inmate was laid in the middle of the chamber,
surrounded by its funeral furniture and by a part of the
offerings. The remainder was placed in the little rooms
which opened out of the principal vault, sometimes on

1 The credit of having discovered this important necropolis, and of having
brought to light the earliest known monuments of the first dynasties, is
entirely due to Amelineau. He carried on important work there during
four years, from 1895 to 1899: unfortunately its success was impaired by
the theories which he elaborated with regard to the new monuments, and
by the delay in publishing an account of the objects which remained in his
possession.

2 For the Cleft," cf. supra, pp. 281, 282, 334:.

336 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

the same level, sometimes on one higher than itself ;
after their contents had heen laid within them, the
entrance to these rooms was generally walled up. Human
bodies have been found inside them, probably those of
slaves killed at the funeral that they might wait upon
the dead in his life beyond the grave. 1 The objects
placed in these chambers were mostly offerings, but
besides these were coarse stelse bearing the name of a
person, and dictated to " the double of his luminary." 2
Some of them mention a dwarf 3 or a favourite dog of the
sovereign, who accompanied his master into the tomb.
Tablets of ivory or bone skilfully incised furnish us
with scenes representing some of the ceremonies of the
deification of the king in his lifetime and the sacrifices
offered at the time of his burial ; 4 in rarer instances
they record his exploits. The offerings themselves were
such as we meet with in burials of a subsequent age
bread, cakes, meat, and poultry of various sorts indeed,
everything we find mentioned in the lists inscribed in
the tombs of the later dynasties, particularly the jars
of wine and liquors, on the clay bungs of which are still
legible the impression of the signet bearing the name of

1 FL. PETRIE, The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty, part i. p. 14.

2 The " luminous double " or the "double of his luminary" is doubtless
that luminous spectre which haunted the tombs and even the houses of the
living during the night, and which I have mentioned, supra, p. 160.

3 Petrie found the skeletons of two dwarfs, probably the very two to
whom the two stelse (Nos. 36, 37) in the tomb of Semempses were raised.
Was one of these dwarfs one of the Danga of Puanit who were sought after
by the Pharaohs of the Memphite dynasties ?

4 This was the ceremony called by the Egyptians " The Festival of the
Foundation " habu sadu.

THE TOMBS OF THE THINITE KINGS 337

the sovereign for whose use they were sealed. Besides
stuffs and mats, the furniture comprised chairs, beds,
stools, an enormous number of vases, some in coarse
pottery for common use, others in choice stone such
as diorite, granite, or rock crystal very finely worked,
on the fragments of all of which may be read cut in
outline the names and preamble of the Pharaoh to whom
the object belonged. The ceremonial of the funerary
offering and its significance was already fully developed
at this early period ; this can be gathered by the very
nature of the objects buried with the deceased, by their
number, quantity, and by the manner in which they
were arranged. Like their successors in the Egypt of
later times, these ancient kings expected to continue
their material existence within the tomb, and they took
precautions that life there should be as comfortable as
circumstances should permit. Access to the tomb was
sometimes gained by a sloping passage or staircase; this
made it possible to see if everything within was in a
satisfactory condition. After the dead had been enclosed
in his chamber, and five or six feet of sand had been
spread over the beams which formed its roof, the
position of the tomb was shown merely by a scarcely
perceptible rise in the soil of the necropolis, and its
site would soon have been forgotten, if its easternmost
limits had not been marked by two large stela3 on which
were carefully engraved one of the appellations of the
king that of his double, or his Horus name. 1 It was
on this spot, upon an altar placed between the two

For the Horus name of the Pharaohs, see vol. ii., pp. 23-25.
VOL. I.

338 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

stelae, that the commemorative ceremonies were cele
brated, and the provisions renewed on certain days fixed
by the religious law. Groups of private tombs were
scattered around, the resting-places of the chief officers
of the sovereign, the departed Pharaoh being thus sur
rounded in death by the same courtiers as those who
had attended him during his earthly existence.

The princes, whose names and titles have been revealed
to us by the inscriptions on these tombs, have not by any
means been all classified as yet, the prevailing custom at
that period having been to designate them by their Horus
names, but rarely by their proper names, which latter is
the only one which figures in the official lists which we
possess of the Egyptian kings. A few texts, more explicit
than the rest, enable us to identify three of them with
the Usaphais, the Miebis, and the Semempses of Manetho
the fifth, sixth, and seventh kings of the I st dynasty. 1
The fact that they are buried in the necropolis of Abydos
apparently justifies the opinion of the Egyptian chroniclers
that they were natives of Thinis. Is the Menes who
usually figures at their head 2 also a Thinite prince?

1 The credit is due to SETHE of having attributed their ordinary names
to several of the kings of the I st dynasty with Horus names only which were
found by Amelineau, and these identifications have been accepted by all
Egyptologists. Petrie discovered quite recently on some fragments of vases
the Horus names of these same princes, together with their ordinary names.
The Usaphais, the Miebis, and the Semempses of Manetho are now satis
factorily identified with three of the Pharaohs discovered by Amelineau and
by Petrie. ~i

2 In the time of Seti I. and Ramses II. he heads the list of the Table of
Abydos. Under Ramses II. his statue was carried in procession, preceding
all the other royal statues. Finally, the " Royal Papyrus " of Turin,

THE NAGADEH TOMB 339

Several scholars believe that his ordinary name, Mini,
is to be read on an ivory tablet engraved for a sovereign
whose Horus name Ahauiti, the warlike is known to
us from several documents, and whose tomb also has
been discovered, but at Nagadeh. It is a great rectangular
structure of bricks 1G5 feet long and 84 broad, the
external walls of which were originally ornamented by
deep polygonal grooves, resembling those which score
the fa$ade of Chaldaean buildings, but the Nagadeh tomb
has a second brick wall which fills up all the hollows
left in the first one, and thus hides the primitive decora
tion of the monument. The building contains twenty-
one chambers, five of which in the centre apparently
constituted the dwelling of the deceased, while the others,
grouped around these, serve as storehouses from w r hence
he could draw his provisions at will. Did the king buried
within indeed bear the name of Menes, 1 and if such was
the case, how are we to reconcile the tradition of his
Thinite origin with the existence of his far-off tomb in
the neighbourhood of Thebes ? Objects bearing his
Horus name have been found at Omm-el-Gaab, and it
is evident that he belonged to the same age as the
sovereigns interred in this necropolis. If, indeed, Menes
was really his personal name, there is no reason against
his being the Menes of tradition, he whom the Pharaohs

written in the time of Ramses I., begins the entire series of the human
Pharaohs with his name.

1 The sign Manu, which appears on the ivory tablet found in this tomb,
has been interpreted as a king s name, and consequently inferred to be
Menes. This reading has been disputed on various sides, and the point
remains, therefore, a contested one until further discovery.

340 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OP EGYPT

of the glorious Theban dynasties regarded as the earliest
of their purely human ancestors. Whether he was really
the first king who reigned over the whole of Egypt, or
whether he had been preceded by other sovereigns whose
monuments we may find in some site still unexplored,
is a matter for conjecture. That princes had exercised
authority in various parts of the country is still uncertain,
but that the Egyptian historians did not know them,
seems to prove that they had left no written records of
their names. At any rate, a Menes lived who reigned
at the outset of history, and doubtless before long the
Nile valley, when more carefully explored, will yield us
monuments recording his actions and determining his
date. The civilization of the Egypt of his time was
ruder than that with which we have hitherto been familiar
on its soil, but even at that early period it was almost as
complete. It had its industries and its arts, of which
the cemeteries furnish us daily with the most varied
examples : weaving, modelling in clay, wood-carving, the
incising of ivory, gold, and the hardest stone were all
carried on; the ground was cultivated with hoe and
plough ; tombs were built showing us the model of what
the houses and palaces must have been ; the country
had its army, its administrators, its priests, its nobles,
its writing, and its system of epigraphy differs so little
from that to which we are accustomed in later ages, that
we can decipher it with no great difficulty. Frankly
speaking, all that we know at present of the first of the
Pharaohs beyond the mere fact of his existence is practi
cally nil, and the stories related of him by the writers

MENES AND THE FOUNDING OF MEMPHIS 341

of classical times are mere legends arranged to suit the
fancy of the compiler. " This Menes, according to the
priests, surrounded Memphis with dykes. For the river
formerly followed the sandhills for some distance on the
Libyan side. Menes, having dammed up the reach about
a hundred stadia to the south of Memphis, caused the
old bed to dry up, and conveyed the river through an
artificial channel dug midway between the two mountain
ranges. Then Menes, the first who was king, having
enclosed a firm space of ground with dykes, there founded
that town which is still called Memphis ; he then made
a lake round it, to the north and west, fed by the river,
the city being bounded on the east by the Nile." l The
history of Memphis, such as it can be gathered from
the monuments, differs considerably from the tradition
current in Egypt at the time of Herodotus. It appears,
indeed, that at the outset, the site on which it subsequently
arose was occupied by a small fortress, Anbu-hazu the
white wall which was dependent on Heliopolis, and in
which Phtah possessed a sanctuary. After the "white
wall was separated from the Heliopolitan principality
to form a nome by itself, it assumed a certain importance,
and furnished, so it was said, the dynasties which succeeded
the Thinite. Its prosperity dates only, however, from the
time when the sovereigns of the V th and VI th dynasties
fixed on it for their residence; one of them, Papi I.,
there founded for himself and for his " double " after

The dyke supposed to have been made by Menes is evidently that
of Qosheish, which now protects the province of Gizeh, and regulates the
inundation in its neighbourhood.

342 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

him, a new town, which he called Minnofiru, from his
tomb. Minnofiru, which is the correct pronunciation and
the origin of Memphis, probably signified "the good
refuge," the haven of the good, the burying-place where
the blessed dead came to rest beside Osiris. The people
soon forgot the true interpretation, or probably it did not
fall in with their taste for romantic tales. They were
rather disposed, as a rule, to discover in the beginnings
of history individuals from whom the countries or cities
with which they were familiar took their names : if no
tradition supplied them with this, they did not experience
any scruple in inventing one. The Egyptians of the time
of the Ptolemies, who were guided in their philological
speculations by the pronunciation in vogue around them,
attributed the patronship of their city to a Princess
Memphis, a daughter of its founder, the fabulous
Uchoreus; those of preceding ages before the name
had become altered, thought to find in Minnofiru a " Mini
Nofir," or " Menes the Good," the reputed founder of
the capital of the Delta. Menes the Good, divested of
his epithet, is none other than Menes, the first king,
and he owes this episode in his life to a popular attempt at
etymology. The legend which identifies the establish
ment of the kingdom with the construction of the city,
must have originated at the time when Memphis was
still the residence of the kings and the seat of govern
ment, at latest about the end of the Memphite period.
It must have been an old tradition in the time of the
Theban dynasties, since they admitted unhesitatingly the
authenticity of the statements which ascribed to the

THE LEGEND OF THE MENES

343

northern city so marked a superiority over their own
country.

When once this half-mythical Menes was firmly es
tablished in his position, there was little difficulty in
inventing a story which would portray him. as an ideal
sovereign. He was represented as architect, warrior, and
statesman ; he had begun the temple of Phtah, written
laws and regulated the worship of the gods, particularly
that of Hapis, and he had conducted expeditions against

FRAGMENT OF A NECKLACE OF WHICH
THE MEDALLIONS BEAR THE XAME

the Libyans. When he lost

his only son in the flower of

his age, the people improvised a
hymn of mourning to console him the " Maneros " both
the words and the tune of which were handed down from
generation to generation. He did not, moreover, disdain
the luxuries of the table, for he invented the art of serving
a dinner, and the mode of eating it in a reclining posture.
One day, while hunting, his dogs, excited by something
or other, fell upon him to devour him. He escaped with
difficulty, and, pursued by them, fled to the shore of
Lake Moeris, and was there brought to bay; he was on

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin after PRISSE D AVENNES. The gold medal
lions engraved with the name of Menes are ancient, and perhaps go back to
the XX th dynasty ; the setting is entirely modern, with the exception of the
three oblong pendants of cornelian.

344 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

the point of succumbing to them, when a crocodile took
him on his back and carried him across to the other side. 1
In gratitude he built a new town, which he called
Crocodilopolis, and assigned to it for its god the crocodile
which had saved him ; he then erected close to it the
famous labyrinth and a pyramid for his tomb. Other
traditions show him in a less favourable light. They
accuse him of having, by horrible crimes, excited against
him the anger of the gods, and allege that after a reign
of sixty to sixty-two years, he was killed by a hippopotamus
which came forth from the Nile. 2 They also related that
the Saite Tafnakhti, returning from an expedition against
the Arabs, during which he had been obliged to renounce
the pomp and luxuries of royal life, had solemnly cursed
him, and had caused his imprecations to be inscribed
upon a stele set up in the temple of Amon at Thebes.
Nevertheless, in the memory that Egypt preserved of
its first Pharaoh, the good outweighed the evil. He
was worshipped in Memphis side by side with Phtah and

1 This is an episode from the legend of Osiris : at Philse, in the little
building of the Antonines, may be seen a representation of a crocodile
crossing the Nile, carrying on his back the mummy of the god. The same
episode is also found in the tale of Onus el-TJjud and of Uard f il-Ikmam,
where the crocodile leads the hero to his beautiful prisoner in the Island of
Philaj. EBERS, TEgyptc, French trans., vol. ii. pp. 415, 416, has shown how
this episode in the Arab story must have been inspired by the bas-relief at
Philte and by the scene which it portrays : the temple is still called " Kasr,"
and the island " Geziret Onus el-Ujud."

2 In popular romances, this was the usual end of criminals of every kind ;
we shall see that another king, Akhthoes the founder of the IX th dynasty,
after committing horrible misdeeds, was killed, in the same way as Menes,
by a hippopotamus.

WARLIKE RULERS 345

Ramses II. ; his name figured at the head of the royal
lists, and his cult continued till the time of the Ptolemies.

His immediate successors had an actual existence, and
their tombs are there in proof of it. We know where
Usaphais, Miehis, and Semempses 1 were laid to rest,
besides more than a dozen other princes whose real names
and whose position in the official lists are still uncertain.
The order of their succession was often a matter of doubt
to the Egyptians themselves, but perhaps the discoveries
of the next few years will enable us to clear up and settle
definitely matters which were shrouded in mystery in the
time of the Theban Pharaohs. As a fact, the forms of such
of their names as have been handed down to us by later
tradition, are curt and rugged, indicative of an early state
of society, and harmonizing with the more primitive
civilization to which they belong : Ati the Wrestler, Teti
the Runner, Qenqoni the Crusher, are suitable rulers for
a people, the first duty of whose chief was to lead his
followers into battle, and to strike harder than any other
man in the thickest of the fight. 2 Some of the monuments
they have left us, seem to show that their reigns were as
much devoted to war as those of the later Pharaohs. The

1 FLINDERS PETRIE, Ths Boyal Tombs of the First Dynasty, vol. i. p. 56.

2 The Egyptians were accustomed to explain the meaning of the names
of their kings to strangers, and the Canon of Eratosthenes has preserved
several of their derivations, of which a certain number, as, for instance, that
of Menes from aiwvios, the "lasting," are tolerably correct. M. Krall is, to
my knowledge, the only Egyptologist who has attempted to glean from the
meaning of these names indications of the methods by which the national
historians of Egypt endeavoured to make up the lists of the earliest
dynasties.

346 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

king whose Horus name was Narumir, is seen on a con
temporary object which has come down to us, standing
before a heap of beheaded foes ; the bodies are all stretched
out on the ground, each with his head placed neatly
between his legs : the king had overcome, apparently in
some important engagement, several thousands of his
enemies, and was inspecting the execution of their leaders.
That the foes with whom these early kings contended were
in most cases Egyptian princes of the nomes, js proved by
the list of city names which are inscribed on the fragments
of another document of the same nature, and we gather
from them that Dobu (Edfu), Hasutonu (Cynopolis),
Habonu (Hipponon), Hakau (Memphis) and others were
successively taken and dismantled. 1 On this fragment
King Den is represented standing over a prostrate chief of
the Bedouin, striking him with his mace. Sondi, who is
classed in the II nd dynasty, received a continuous worship
towards the end of the III rd dynasty. But did all those
whose names preceded or followed his on the lists, really
exist as he did ? and if they existed, to what extent do the

1 Palette resembling the preceding one, and with it deposited in the
Gizeh Museum ; reproduced by STEINDORFF, and by J. DE MORGAN. The
names of the towns were enclosed within the embattled line which was used
later on to designate foreign countries. The animals which surmount them
represent the gods of Egypt, the king s protectors ; and the king himself,
identified with these gods, is making a breach in the wall with a pick-axe.
The names of the towns have not been satisfactorily identified : Hat-kau,
for instance, may not be Memphis, but it appears that there is no doubt
with regard to Habonu. Cf. SAYCE, The Beginnings of the Egyptian Monarchy
in the Proceedings of the Biblical Archaeological Society, 1898, vol. xx. pp,
99-101.

3 The ivory plaque, which doubtless came from the king s tomb at Abydos,
is in the collection of Mr. McGregor. ED.

THE FIRST TWO THIXITE DYNASTIES 347

order and the relation assigned to them agree with the
actual truth ? The different lists do not contain the same
names in the same positions ; certain Pharaohs are added
or suppressed without appreciable reason. Where Manetho
inscribes Kenkenes and Ouenephes, the tables of the time
of Seti I. gave us Ati and Ata ; Manetho reckons nine
kings to the II nd dynasty, while they register only five. 1
The monuments, indeed, show us that Egypt in the past
obeyed princes whom her annalists were unable to classify :
for instance, they associate with Soudi a Pirsenu, who is
not mentioned in the annals. We must, therefore, take
the record of all this opening period of history for what
it is namely, a system invented at a much later date,
by means of various artifices and combinations to be
partially accepted in default of a better, but without
according to it that excessive confidence which it has
hitherto received. The two Thinite dynasties, in direct
descent from the first human king Menes, furnish, like this
hero himself, only a tissue of romantic tales and miraculous
legends in the place of history. A double-headed stork,
which had appeared in the first year of Teti, son of Menes,
had foreshadowed to Egypt a long prosperity, but a famine
under Ouenephes, and a terrible plague under Semempses,
had depopulated the country ; the laws had been relaxed,
great crimes had been committed, and revolts had broken

1 The impossibility of reconciling the names of /he Greek with those of
the Pharaonic lists has been admitted by most of the savants who have
discussed the matter, viz. Mariette, E. de Rouge, Lieblein, Wiedemann ;
most of them explain the differences by the supposition that, in many cases,
one of the lists gives the cartouche name, and the other the cartouche
prenomen of the same king.

348 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

out. During the reign of Boethos, a gulf had opened near
Bubastis, and swallowed up many people, then the Nile
had flowed with honey for fifteen days in the time of
Nephercheres, and Sesochris was supposed to have been
a giant in stature. A few details about royal edifices were
mixed up with these prodigies. Teti had laid the founda
tion of the great palace of Memphis, Ouenephes had built
the pyramids of Ko-komu near Saqqara. Several of the
ancient Pharaohs had published books on theology, or had
written treatises on anatomy and medicine ; several had
made laws which lasted down to the beginning of the
Christian era. One of them was called Kakou, the male
of males, or the bull of bulls. They explained his name
by the statement that he had concerned himself about the
sacred animals ; he had proclaimed as gods, Hapis of
Memphis, Mnevis of Heliopolis, and the goat of Mendes.
After him, Binothris had conferred the right of succession
upon all the women of the blood-royal. The accession of
the III rd dynasty, a Memphite one according to Manetho,
did not at first change the miraculous character of this
history. The Libyans had revolted against Necherophes,
and the two armies were encamped before each other, when
one night the disk of the moon became immeasurably
enlarged, to the great alarm of the rebels, who recognized
in this phenomenon a sign of the anger of heaven, and
yielded without fighting. Tosorthros, the successor of
Necherophes, brought the hieroglyphs and the art of stone-
cutting to perfection. He composed, as Teti did, books of
medicine, a fact which caused him to be identified with the
healing god Imhotpu. The priests related these things

ORIGIN OF LEGENDS 349

seriously, and the Greek writers took them down from their
lips with the respect which they offered to everything
emanating from the wise men of Egypt.

What they related of the human kings was not more
detailed, as we see, than their accounts of the gods.
Whether the legends dealt with deities or kings, all
that we know took its origin, not in popular imagiDa-
tiou, but in sacerdotal dogma : they were invented
long after the times they dealt with, in the recesses
of the temples, with an intention and a method of
which we are enabled to detect flagrant instances on the
monuments. Towards the middle of the third century
before our era, the Greek troops stationed on the southern
frontier, in the forts at the first cataract, developed a
particular veneration for Isis of Phila3. Their devotion
spread to the superior officers who came to inspect them,
then to the whole population of the Thebaid, and finally
reached the court of the Macedonian kings. The latter,
carried away by force of example, gave every encouragement
to a movement which attracted worshippers to a common
sanctuary, and united in one cult the two races over which
they ruled. They pulled down the meagre building of the
Sa ite period which had hitherto sufficed for the worship
of Isis, constructed at great cost the temple which still
remains almost intact, and assigned to it considerable
possessions in Nubia, which, in addition to gifts from
private individuals, made the goddess the richest land
owner in Southern Egypt. Khnurnu and his two
wives, Anukit and Satlt, who, before Isis, had been the
undisputed suzerains of the cataract, perceived with

330

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

jealousy their neighbour s prosperity : the civil wars and
invasions of the centuries immediately preceding had

SAT1T PRESENTS THE PIIAKAOH AMENOTHES III. TO

ruined their temples, and their poverty contrasted pain
fully with the riches of the new-comer. The priests

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs of the temple of
Khuumu, at Elephantine. This bas-relief is now destroyed.

THE REIGN OF ZOSIRI

351

resolved to lay this sad state of affairs before King Ptolemy,
to represent to him the services which they had rendered
and still continued to render to Egypt, and above all to
remind him of the generosity of the ancient Pharaohs,
whose example, owing to the poverty of the times, the
recent Pharaohs had been unable to follow. Doubtless
authentic documents were wanting in their
archives to support their pretensions : they
therefore inscribed upon a rock, in the
island of Sehel, a long inscription which
they attributed to Zosiri of the III rd
dynasty. This sovereign had left behind
him a vague reputation for greatness. As
early as the XII th dynasty Usirtasen III.
had claimed him as "his father" his
ancestor and had erected a statue to
him ; the priests knew that, by invoking
him, they had a chance of obtaining a
hearing. The inscription which they fabri
cated, set forth that in the eighteenth year
of Zosiri s reign he had sent to Madlr,
lord of Elephantine, a message couched in
these terms : " I am overcome with sorrow for the throne,
and for those who reside in the palace, and my heart is
afflicted and suffers greatly because the Nile has not risen
in my time, for the space of eight years. Corn is scarce,
there is a lack of herbage, and nothing is left to eat : when
any one calls upon his neighbours for help, they take pains
not to go. The child weeps, the young man is uneasy, the
hearts of the old men are in despair, their limbs are bent,

AN UK IT.

352 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

they crouch on the earth, they fold their hands ; the
courtiers have no further resources; the shops formerly
furnished with rich wares are now rilled only with air, all
that was in them has disappeared. My spirit also, mindful
of the beginning of things, seeks to call upon the Saviour who
was here where I am, during the centuries of the gods, upon
Thot-Ibis, that great wise one, upon Imhotpu, son of Phtah
of Memphis. Where is the place in which the Nile is born ?
Who is the god or goddess concealed there ? What is his
likeness ? The lord of Elephantine brought his reply in
person. He described to the king, who was evidently
ignorant of it, the situation of the island and the rocks of
the cataract, the phenomena of the inundation, the gods
who presided over it, and who alone could relieve Egypt
from her disastrous plight. Zosiri repaired to the temple
of the principality and offered the prescribed sacrifices ; the
god arose, opened his eyes, panted and cried aloud, "I am
Khnumu who created thee ! and promised him a speedy
return of a high Nile and the cessation of the famine.
Pharaoh was touched by the benevolence which his divine
father had shown him ; he forthwith made a decree by
which he ceded to the temple all his rights of suzerainty
over the neighbouring nomes within a radius of twenty
miles. Henceforward the entire population, tillers and
vinedressers, fishermen and hunters, had to yield the tithe
of their incomes to the priests ; the quarries could not be
worked without the consent of Khnumu, and the payment
of a suitable indemnity into his coffers, and finally, all
metals and precious woods shipped thence for Egypt had
to submit to a toll on behalf of the temple. Did the

THE FAMINE STELE

353

Ptolemies admit
the claims which
the local priests at
tempted to deduce from this
romantic tale ? and did the god
regain possession of the domains
and dues which they declared
had been his right ? The stele
shows us with what ease the
scribes could forge official docu
ments, when the exigencies of
daily life forced the necessity upon them ; it teaches us at
the same time how that fabulous chronicle was elaborated,
whose remains have been preserved for us by classical
writers. Every prodigy, every fact related by Manetho,
was taken from some document analogous to the supposed
inscription of Zosiri. 2

THE STEP- PYRAMID OF SAQQARA. 1

1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Deveria (1864) ; in the fore
ground, the tomb of Ti.

2 The legend of the yawning gulf at Bubastis must be connected with
the gifts supposed to have been offered by King Boethos to the temple of

VOL. I.

2 A

354 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OP EGYPT

The real history of the early centuries, therefore, eludes
our researches, and no contemporary record traces for us
those vicissitudes which Egypt passed through before being
consolidated into a single kingdom, under the rule of one
man. Many names, apparently of powerful and illustrious
princes, had survived in the memory of the people ; these
were collected, classified, and grouped in a regular manner
into dynasties, but the people were ignorant of any exact
facts connected with the names, and the historians, on
their own account, were reduced to collect apocryphal
traditions for their sacred archives. The monuments of
these remote ages, however, cannot have entirely dis
appeared : they exist in places where we have not as yet
thought of applying the pick, and chance excavations will
some day most certainly bring them to light. The few
which we do possess barely go back beyond the III rd
dynasty : namely, the hypogeum of Shiri, priest of Sondi
and Pirsenu ; possibly the tomb of Khulthotpu at Saqqara ;
the Great Sphinx of Gizeh ; a short inscription on the
rocks of the Wady Maghara, which represents Zosiri (the
same king of whom the priests of Khnuniu in the Greek
period made a precedent) working the turquoise or copper
mines of Sinai; and finally the Step-Pyramid where this

that town, to repair the losses sustained by the goddess on that occasion ;
the legend of the pestilence and famine is traceable to some relief given by
a local god, and for which Semempses and Uenephes might have shown
their gratitude in the same way as Zosiri. The tradition of the successive
restorations of Denderah accounts for the constructions attributed to Teti I.
and to Tosorthros ; finally, the pretended discoveries of sacred books, dealt
with elsewhere, show how Manetho was enabled to attribute to his Pharaohs
the authorship of works on medicine or theology.

THE STEP-PYRAMID OF SAQQARA 355

same Pharaoh rests. 1 It forms a rectangular mass, in
correctly orientated, with a variation from the true north
of 4 35 , 393 ft. 8 in. long from east to west, and 352 ft.
deep, with a height of 159 ft. 9 in. It is composed of six
cubes, with sloping sides, each being about 13 ft. less in
width than the one below it ; that nearest to the ground
measures 37 ft. 8 in. in height, and the uppermost one
29 ft. 9 in. It was entirely constructed of limestone from
the neighbouring mountains. The blocks are small, and
badty cut, the stone courses being concave to offer a better
resistance to downward thrust and to shocks of earthquake.
When breaches in the masonry are examined, it can be
seen that the external surface of the steps has, as it were, a
double stone facing, each facing being carefully dressed.
The body of the pyramid is solid, the chambers being cut
in the rock beneath. These chambers have been often
enlarged, restored, and reworked in the course of centuries,
and the passages which connect them form a perfect laby
rinth into which it is dangerous to venture without a guide.
The columned porch, the galleries and halls, all lead to a
sort of enormous shaft, at the bottom of which the architect
had contrived a hiding-place, destined, no doubt, to contain
the more precious objects of the funerary furniture. Until
the beginning of this century, the vault had preserved its

1 The stele of Sehel has enabled us to verify the fact that the preamble
[a string of titles] to the inscription of the king, buried in the Step-Pyramid,
is identical with that of King Zosiri : it was, therefore, Zosiri who con
structed, or arranged for the construction of this monument as his tomb.
The Step-Pyramid of Saqqara was opened in 1819, at the expense of the
Prussian General Minutoli, who was the first to give a brief description of
the interior, illustrated by plans and drawings.

356

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OP EGYPT

original lining of glazed pottery. Three quarters of the
wall surface were covered with green tiles, oblong and
slightly convex on the outer side, but flat on the inner : a

0&gt;TE OF 1HK CHAMBERS OF TFIE STEP-PYKAMID, WITH ITS WALL- COVERING OF

GLAZED TILES. 1

square projection pierced with a hole, served to fix them at
the back in a horizontal line by means of flexible wooden

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the coloured sketch by Segato. M.
Stern attributes the decoration of glazed pottery to the XXVI th dynasty,
which opinion is shared by BORCHARDT. The yellow and green glazed tiles
bearing the cartouche of Papi I., show that the Egyptians of the Memphite
dynasties used glazed facings at that early date ; we may, therefore, believe,
if the tiles of the vault of Zosiri are really of the Saite period, that they
replaced a decoration of the same kind, which belonged to the time of its
construction, and of which some fragments still exist among the tiles of
more recent date.

THE STEP-PYRAMID OF SAQQARA 357

rods. The three bands which frame one of the doors are
inscribed with the titles of the Pharaoh : the hieroglyphs
are raised in either blue, red, green, or yellow, on a fawn-
coloured ground. Other kings had built temples, palaces,
and towns, as, for instance, King Khasakhimu, of whose
constructions some traces exist at Hieraconpolis, opposite
to El-Kab, or King Khasakhmui, who preceded by a few
years the Pharaohs of the IV th dynasty but the monuments
which they raised to be witnesses of their power or piety to
future generations, have, in the course of ages, disappeared
under the tramplings and before the triumphal blasts of
many invading hosts : the pyramid alone has survived, and
the most ancient of the historic monuments of Egypt is
a tomb.

END OF VOL. I.

INDEX

Abydos, 281, 282, 323, 333

Agriculture in Egypt, 86-91, 98, 248

Ahi, 142

Ait-nobsu, 243, 245

Akhimu Soku (or urdu), 125

Akhinim (Panopolis, Ekhmim), 40

Amakhu, 165

Amoii, 116, 133, 135, 177, 206, 213, 227

Amon-Maut-Khonsu, 215

Amsit, 204, 205, 261, 267

Anbu-haz-u, 341

Anhuri-Shu, 133, 135, 148, 163, 199, 200,

205, 218, 332, 333
Anit, 215

Ankht. See Onkhit
Anubis, 138, 156, 163, 191, 249, 252, 255,

260, 261, 268, 273, 304
Auukit (Anuke), 141, 349
Anupu, 163
Apit-to, 23

Apollinopolis Magna. See Edfu
Apdpi, 120, 121, 227, 242, 286
Apu, 95

Ari-hos-nofir (or Tutu), 141, 217
Ashmunein. See Khmunu
Asp, The, 42
Astronomy, Ancient Egyptian, 292, et

seq., 299

Aswan (Syene), 14
Ata, 347
Athribis, 102
Ati, 345, 347
Atonu, 116
Atumu (see also Tumu), 144, 152, 197,

198, 200, 206, 210, 214, 216, 223
Aunu of the North (Heliopolis), 97, 271
Axes, Ancient, 75
Azai, 137, 138

Bahr el-Abiad. 27
Bahr el-Ghazal, 27
Bahr-Yusuf, 8
Bakhu, 23, 56

Bamia, The, 84

Bastit, 137, 144

Batn-el-Bagarah, 7

Bennu. See Bond

Bersim, 8

Bes. See Bisu

Bindthris, 348

Birds of Egypt, 44

Birds, Legend of the (Gebel et-Ter), 12

Birket-Nu, 28

Bisu (Bes), 112

Boethos, 348, 353

Boiul (Beunu), 128, 186, 194, 271

"Book of the Dead," 263, 283, 321

11 Bride of the Kile," 33

Bubastis, 102, 137, 353

Burial, Ancient Egyptian modes of, 153

Buto, 56, 102, 132, 137, 251

Calendar, The Egyptian, 295, et seq.

Camel, The, 41

Canopic branch of Nile, 6

Cataracts, The, 14, 19

Cereals of Egypt, 85

Cerkasoros, 6

Charms and spells, Ancient, 303

" Children of Defeat " (or Rebellion), 227

Clubs and maces, Ancient, 73, 74

Colocasia, The, 84

Costumes of the Egyptians, 69-73, et seq.

Creation, Traditions of the, 209, 222. et

seq.

Crocodile, The, 43, 344
Cultivation. See Agriculture

Da it, 24

"Daughter of the Prince of Bakhtan,

Tale of," 151

Decani, The (Genii), 293, 297
Delta,

Age of, 4, 5

Formation of, 3, 97, 98, 186
Delta Deities, The, 47, 48, 186, 254

INDEX

Denderah, 102, 129
-Destruction of Men," The, 149
Didu of Osiris, The, 183
Domestic implements, 67
Domestic life of Egyptians, 64
Dom-palm (Egyptian Mama), 41
"Double Truth," The, 271
Dynasties of Egypt, The, 321, 322, et seq.

Edfu (Apollinopolis Magna), (Tbu), 102,

130, 286

Egyptian language, The, 58
Egyptians,

Costumes of ancient, 68, 72

Customs of ancient, 63

Early civilization, 66

Origin of the, 56, 57

Types and characteristics of, 58-63

Weapons of ancient, 73-76
Ekhmim. See Akhmitn
Embalming, Process of, 153, 309
Enneads, The, 203, et seq., 213, 215, 226,

272, 273

Epagomenal days, The five, 298
Eratosthenes, Canon of, 345
Ermeut, 135
Esneh (Latopolis), 130

Fauna of Egypt, 41, 42

Fennec, The, 139

Festivals, Ancient Egyptian, 297, 300

Feudal gods of Egypt, 140, 151, 183, 203

Fish of the Nile, 44, 45

"Five, House of the," 210

Flora of Egypt, 35, 36, 39, 40

Food-plants, 83

Funeral rites, Ancient, 160, 257

Funerary gods, The, 204

Gebel Abufeda, 12

Gebel el-Ahmar, 12

Gebel et-TeY, 12

Gebel Mokattam, 11

Gebelgn, 13

Ginreh. See Cerkasoros

Gizeh, 354

Gods of Egypt, 107, 132, 146, 162

Gods, Endowment of, 177

Granites of Egypt, 15, 16

Hades, The Egyptian, 280, 282, 295
Hahu-Hehit, 213

Haikuphtah (Hakuphtah), 54

Hapi, 47, 48, 51, 54, 205, 260

Hapi, Hymn to, 51

Hapis (Apis), 343, 348

Hardiduf, 321

Hare, Nome of the, 95

Harhuditi (Hor-hud), 133, 204, 291

Harkhobi, 135

Harmakhis, 286

Harmakhftiti, 134, 196, 198

Harmerati, 133

Haruubi, 134, 142

Haroeris (Horus), 114, 117, 123, 124, 130,

133, 134, 137, 142-145, 152, 166, 202-

205, 216, 217, 225, 227, 252, 253, 265,

286, 292

Harpoon, Nome of the, 98, 100
Har-Sapdi (Hor-Sopd), 133
Harshafitu (Her-shafui), 132, 140, 168
Harsiesis, 203
Harsiisit, 186
Hartima, 134
Hathor, 112, 115, 117, 119, 133, 137, 141,

144, 163, 172, 206, 215, 235, 253, 263,

266, 268, 296

Haunch constellation, The, 125-127
Haunch, Nome of the, 97
Hafmt, 132
Heliopolis (see also Aunu of the North),

163, 166, 190, 191, 274, 330, 341
Hermopolis Magna. See Khinunu
Hiborm (Minieh), 287, 288
Hierodules, 178
Hieroglyphs, The, 315-319
Hininsu, 95

Hor-hud. See Harhuditi
Horse, The, 41
Hor-Sopd. See Har-Sapdi
Horus (Haroeris), 114, 117, 123, 124, 130,

133, 134, 137, 142-145, 152, 202-206,

215, 216, 225, 227, 252, 253, 265, 286,

288, 292, 305

Hunting, Ancient methods of, 76-82
Husaphaiti, 321
Hu-Su, 302

lalu. See " Reeds, Field of

lauhu, 128

Ibis, The, 44

Ibrahimiyeh, 8

Ichneumon, The, 42

Imhotep. See Imhotpu

Imhotpu, 143, 146, 348, 352

Incantations, etc., 303, 304

Irrigation. See Agriculture in Egypt

Isis, 28, 119, 132, 143, 145, 183, 186, 187,

200, 206, 215, 221, 231, 232, 246, 249,

252, 255, 260, 269, 349

INDEX

"Islands of the Blest," 266, 277-283
lusasit, 141, 216

Kabhsonuf (Kabhsuuf), 205

Kahiri (planet Saturn), 128

Kak6u, 348

Kaku-Kakit, 213

Kasr-es-Sayad, 12

Kenkeries, 347

Kerkesoura. See Cerkasoros

Kha, Lake of, 266

Khait-nutrit, 287

Khamsin, The, 30

Khartum, 21

Kheops, 321

Kheper. See Khopri

Khmuuu (Hermopolis Magna), 95, 102,

137, 181, 207, 211, 214, 331
Khnumu (god of Elephantine 1 ), 52, 132,

140, 152, 168, 181, 217, 222, 349, 352
Khomninu, 213
Khonsu, 151
Khontamentit (Khent-Amenti), 163, 164,

258, 280, 281, 333

Khopri (Kheper), 163, 197, 198, 233, 265
Khti (Khuu), 160
Khufui (see also Kheops)
Khuihotep. See Khuithotpu
Khuithotpu, 354
Kings, Tables of, 322, et seq.
Ko-koine, Pyramids of, 348

"Land of Shades," 25

Letopolis (Sokhem), 144

Life, Ancient Egyptian theory of, 309

Lotus, The, 36, 47, 84, 85, 193, 195

Madir, 351
Magicians, 303
Magicians, The king s, 311
Mait, 208, 268
"Maneros," The, 343
Manes, 322
Mania, 23, 56, 120

Marriage amongst Egyptians, 63, 64
Mars-Doshiri, 128
Maskhait, 126
Maskhonit, 108

Mathematical calculations, Early, 314
Mazit, 120
"Meadow of Reeds." See "Reeds,

Field of"
"Meadow of Rest." See "Rest,

Field of"
Medam6t Taud, 135

Medicine, Early practice of, 308, 311, 312

"Melayahs," 95

Meloukhia, The, 84

Memphis (Minnofiru), 328, 341, 342

Memphite period, The, 328, 329

Mendes, 163, 168, 200

Menes, 5, 90, 322, 333-343, 347

Menkauri. See Mykerinos

Mihit, 333

Min (God of Koptos). See Minu

Minnofiru. See Memphis

Minu, 133, 168, 205

Miriri Papi I. See Papi I.

Mirit Mihit, 48

Mirit Qimait, 48

Mnevis, 193, 348

Moaris, King, 90

Mceris, Lake (Birket-Kerun), 343

Monad, The, 214

Monait, 123, 142

Montu (Mentu), god of Hermouthis, 135,

168, 215, 228

Moon, Ancient traditions of the, 123
Music, Invention of, 314
Mykerinos (Menkauri), 321

Nahmauit, 141, 142

Napri, 51, 54

Naprit, 108

Nebth6tpit, 141, 216

Nekhabit (Eileithyapolis, El-Kab), 56, 96,

102

Nekhabit, the vulture goddess, 137
Nephercheres, 348
Nephthys, 189, 200, 201, 215, 247, 249,

252, 260, 269
Ngagu oiru, 115
" Night of the Drop," 28, 30
Nile,

Blue, 29

Festivals of the, 50

Green, 29

Inundations of the, 29, 50, 53, 89

Mouths of the, 6

Red, 30

Rise of the, 30, 50, 53, 89

Source of the, 25, 26

Valley of the, 6

White, 34

Nile-gods, The (Hapi and his two god
desses, Mirit Qimait and Mirit Mihit ;
also Khnumu, Osiris, Harshafiu), 46-
48, 132, 140, 168, 181
Ninu-Ninit, 213
Nit, 53, 133, 137, 141, 163, 166, 180, 206,

263, 268
Nofir-horu, 141

INDEX

Nofir-tumu, 144

Koine-gods, 132, 163, 183, 184, 205

Nomes of Egypt, The, 92-103

Nti, or Nun, 180, 209, 227, 234-239

Nubit, Ombos, 286

Kfiit (Nut), 115, 120, 123, 172, 181, 182,

188, 199, 200, 210, 215, 228, 238-242,

247, 263
Nu-Nuit, 213
Nut. -SeeNtiit

Oasis, The Great (Uit, Uhat), (Oasis of

El-Khargeh), 334
CEdipus Egyptiacus (Kircher), Map from,

Ogdoad, The, 212, 217
Oirfi mau (Ur-ina), 177, 230
Oleander (Naru), Nome of, 95, 100
Ombos (Nubit), 137
Omens and auspicious days, 301, 302
On. See Aunu of the North
Onkhit (Ankht), 23
Onuophris (Osiris), 184, 259, 270, 273,

279, 280, 295
Onouris, 135

" Opening of the Mouth," 257
Oracles, Egyptian, 168, 169
Orion-Sahu. See Sahu
Osiris, 90, 132, 140, 141-145, 152, 163,

164, 168, 181-191, 200, 215, 245-262,

268, 273-291, 295, 300-304, 309, 333
Osiris Khontamentit, 280, 281
Ouenephes, 347, 348
Oxyrrhynchos (Pi-mazit, Bahnasa), 286,

287
Oxyrrhynchus (mormyrus fish), 137, 252

Panopolis (Apu). See Akhmim

Paophi, 303

Papi I., 341

Papyrus, The, 47, 85

Paradise, The Egyptian idea of, 284. See

also Hades
Pasht. See Bastit
Paulti, 203

Pelusiac branch of Nile, 6
Pepi. See Papi
Pharaoh, 352
Pharmuti, 297
Phoenix, The, 193
Phtah, 51, 132, 143, 152, 163, 168, 206,

222, 228, 302, 341, 344, 352
Phtah-Sokar-Osiris, 280
Piarit, 244, 245
Pi-ra. See Heliopolis
Piruit, 296, 297

Priesthood, The Egyptian, 173-177
Princes and nobility, 92, 93
Ptolemy, King, 351
Puauit, 112
Punt. See Puauit
Pyramid, The Step-, 354

Qabhsonuf, 260
Qasr-es-Sayad, 12
Qenqoni, 345
Qiinit, 55
Qosheish, 89, 90
Qubti, 96

Ra, 51, 114-128, 133, 139, 152, 166, 168,
194-199, 222-247, 255, 265, 281, 285.
294, 300, 330

Ra-Harmakhis, 242

Ra-Harinakhuiti, 197

Raian, 8

Ramses II., 323, 340, 345

Raninit, 109

Ranuit (Ramuit), 297

Ra-qririt, 163

" Reeds, Field of," 241, 258, 262, 280

Religious rites and ceremonies, 174

Remedies, Egyptian. See Medicine

Rert. See Ririt

" Respondents," 276

"Rest, Field of," 241, 258

Ririt (Rert), 126

Romitu (Rotu), 55

"Sa," The, 151

Safir, 110

Sahu, 128, 129, 293, 295

Sahu-Orion, 295

Said (Arabic name of Upper Egypt), 45,
96

Sais, 102

Sai te period, The, 329

Sakieh, The, 19

Saktit, The, 120

Samiu Sit, 252

Sapdi, 181

Sap-hou, 302

Saqqara, 323, 348, 354

Satit (Sati), 141, 349

"Satui, Tale of," 208

Saza, 110

Seb. See Sibu

Sebek. See Sovku (or Sobkhu)

Sebennytic branch of Nile, 6

Sehel, 15

Sehel stele, The, 355

Selkit, 216

Semempses, 347

INDEX

Serpent-worship, 170

Sesochris, 348

Seti I., 61, 323, 341

Sha, 110

Shalt, 296, 298

Shas-hirit, Berenice, 288

Shehadidi, 113

Sheshait-Safkhitabui, 141, 142

Sheshonqu II., 48, note 1

Shomu, 296

ShosM Horu (Shesu Hor), 252, 260

Shu, 180-182, 199-206, 215, 216, 228, 238-

246, 255, 302
Sibu (Seb), 51, 115, 119, 181, 182, 188,

200-210, 213, 228, 238-246, 254, 255, 286
Silsileh, Khenu, 50, 56
Sit, 181, 182, 189, 191, 200, 207, 215, 246,

251-254, 259, 275, 286, 288, 291, 301,

304

Sit-Nubiti, 254
Sit-Typhon, 250
Siut (Siaut), 93, 100, 102, 138
Sobat, The, 27
Sohagiyeh, 8

Sokaris, 163, 164, 258, 280, 283
Sokhit, 144, 196, 236, 237, 302, 333
Sondi, 345, 346

Sopdit (Sopd), Sirius, or Sothis, 128
Sothis, 129, 293, 295, 298
Soul, Ancient traditions of the, 158, 260,

et seq.
SovkQ, Sobku (Sebek), 53, 137, 140, 143,

245

Spells and Incantations, Ancient, 303
Sphinx the Great, 354
Stars, Egyptian traditions of the, 122-128
Step-Pyramid, The, 354, et seq.
Sun, Legends and traditions of the, 116-

122, 133, 195, 281
Sycamores, 172

Tafuuit, 201, 206, 215, 216

Takazze, The, 21, 34

" Tale of the Two Brothers," 252

Tamarisk, Egyptian and Semitic names

of, 39

Taninit, 216
Tanu, 215

Terebinth, The, 93, 100
Teti I., 159, 345
Thamos, 315
Thebaid, The, 53
Theban Ennead, The, 215
Theban period, The, 329
Thinis, or This, 95, 102, 133, 135, 163, 331,

334

Thot, 53, 123, 137-142, 152, 204-215, 228,
247-255, 260, 266, 272, 283, 286, 291,,
296, 302-308, 314, 320, 352

Thoth. See Thot

Time, Divisions of. See Calendar

Tiuinautf, 204, 261

Tiu-mitiri, 128

Tombs, The Egyptian, 284, 356

Tosorthros, 348

" Tree of the Virgin, 11 172

Tree-worship, 171

Triads of gods, 144, et seq., 215

Turn. See Tumu.

Tumu (see Atumu), 141, 163, 197-199,
209, 227, 233, 265

Tunari, 323

Typhon, 246, 251. 271, 286-291, 300

Typhoniaus. See Typhon

Uapirahuhui, 254

Uapshetatiu (planet Jupiter), 128

Uap-uaitu (Anubis), 138, 163, 204, 267

Uashbiti, 276, 277

Uati, 128

Uchoreus, 342

Uit (Uhat), the Great Oasis, 334

Universe, Egyptian theory of the, 22,

180, 182

Unnofrui (Osiris), 184
Urseus, The, 42, 243, 265
trdu-hit, 164
Urshu, 294
Usirtaseu III., 351

Wady, Maghara inscription, 354
Willow (Egyptian tarit, tore), 41
World, Egyptian conception of the, 21, 22
Worship, Rites of, 173-179
Writing, The invention of, 314, et seq.

YMhu, AuhO the Moon, 122

Zalu, or Zaru (Selle, Tell Abu Seifeh),

288

Zatmit, 287
Zobfi (Edfu), 96
Zosiri, 351-353

.4?

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